A New Student Debt Ranking

By now, most Lounge readers are likely already familiar with SeekingArrangement, a website that connects sugar “babies” and “daddies.”  For those that aren’t, SeekingArrangement claims 3.6 million active members, 2.6 million of them babies and 1 million daddies (and, supposedly, mommas, though other references on the site are exclusively to daddies).

US Colleges With The Highest Number of Babies

According to the website, sugar daddies receive no strings attached relationships with attractive women. In exchange, sugar babies receive “shopping sprees, expensive dinners, and exotic travels,” a “mentor” who can provide “valuable guidance,” and the freedom to no longer worry about unpaid bills.

But that’s all old news. 

What is new news, according to the Atlantic, is the impact that the rising cost of student debt has had at SeekingArrangement.  Apparently, sugar daddies are rushing to the rescue at campuses across the country, volunteering to subsidize tuition costs:

What might have been little more than a nuisance in the past has turned into an outright hindrance to many students’ financial security: It takes about 14 years on average to pay off the debt. As a result, young women across the country are turning to sugar daddies in droves. Many of them use SeekingArrangement, which describes itself as "the world’s largest Sugar Daddy dating site." More than 1.4 million students have signed up as members, including nearly 1 million in the U.S., according to the company. The website claims that 42 percent of its members are students. . .

 

Colleges With The Highest "Babies" Growth (2014)

Georgia State, Arizona State and Kent State are all sugar baby hot spots.  But it is NYU, which charges $46,170 a student for tuition and fees, that this year became the first college ever to cross the "1000 sugar babies" threshold. 

(HT: Joan MacLeod Hemingway)

Comments

[Jojo]

Weak and desperate young people selling their bodies to pay for student loans. If this was another industry, I can all but guarantee that law schools would host a symposium on the topic and possibly start a clinic. I have a nagging suspicion that this abomination will not get widespread attention from the law schools. Why do you think that is?

[Prop]

I find it hard to believe that they have the actual number of members claimed.

[Kim Krawiec]

Even less likely that these numbers represent full-time students, Prop. Apparently, SA gives various discounts and incentives for anyone who registers with an .edu address. So I suspect they're counting all such registrants as students, which the Atlantic article insinuates are full-time students. Most likely at least some of these are simply folks who have (or had) access to an .edu address.

Having said all of that, though, I don't doubt that students are a likely "baby" demographic.

[Jojo]

Kim,

Did the respective institutions report the "babies" in the JD-Advantage category?

[Kim Krawiec]

I would think that a JD is a distinct disadvantage in this setting, JoJo. Though perhaps I do not understand the demands of this particular marketplace very well.

[No, breh.]

NYU Press Release Headline: "NYU Ranked #1 School for Mentoring"

[Kim Krawiec]

Ha, good one, No breh. I suppose we could now make references to "law porn" and Sextonism . . . but why go there?

[twbb]

"In exchange, sugar babies receive “shopping sprees, expensive dinners, and exotic travels,”"

In other words, the necessities.

[Prop]

I would be interested in knowing if this service is popular at religious schools like BYU or Liberty.

[Daddy]

Life in the "sugar bowl" is sweet indeed!

[Derek Tokaz]

Kim,

Profiles on SA include an occupation field (such as you would find on pretty much every other dating site), and members can select "Student" as their occupation. Seems like that might be how they're getting their number of students.

[Kim Krawiec]

Thanks Derek, that makes sense -- self-reporting sounds like an even less reliable method than counting the .edu addresses in this context, though.