“A mutually beneficial relationship”
Not everyone has a sweet tooth, but a growing number of college students are finding themselves craving sugar — sugar daddies, that is.
According to new data released by sugar daddy dating site SeekingArrangement.com, the number of women from this university signing up jumped from 35 to 72 in the last year.
Although the site was founded in 2005, it only began detailing the colleges of its users in early 2012, when it showed the 20 universities that contained the most sign-ups for the website in 2011. The trend has been taking off across the country, as nationally, college student sign-ups rose 58 percent in 2012. Out of the 3,000 schools SeekingArrangement.com followed, the site saw the most growth from southern schools, which accounted for more than half of the top 20 fastest-growing sugar baby schools.
This university didn’t make the cut, but it soon could if the number of sign-ups continues to grow at its current rate.
The numbers could be even higher, said SeekingArrangement.com representative Jennifer Gwynn. The site counted only people who registered with an email address ending in .edu or listed that they attended a particular university on their profiles.
The relationship between a sugar daddy and his sugar baby is a unique one. Older men shell out cash and expensive gifts in exchange for the company of a young, attractive coed. And now, the site includes sugar mommies, accommodating both male and female sugar babies and those of alternative sexualities.
For a handful of students, it’s an ideal means of paying the bills. Though the economy is improving, students are still finding they could use a little sugar — jobs are hard to come by and repaying student loans is as expensive as ever. Student loan delinquency rates are at an all-time high, and interest rates are unstable. But with a sugar daddy, students can theoretically make rent, pay tuition and have extra cash lining their pockets without having to sacrifice their education.
“Taking out a student loan isn’t attractive and the job market is no longer what it used to be — there’s no guarantee that you’re going to get a job that’s going to be paying very well,” Gwynn said. “There’s these kinds of relationships that can help alleviate the pressures.”
College sugar babies get an average of about $3,000 a month in money and gifts, Gwynn said.
Though SeekingArrangement.com’s concept is simple — set up hot girls and rich guys, and everybody wins — it’s not quite that easy.
The matchmaking service works like any other online dating site. Just because you sign up and put yourself out there doesn’t mean you’re going to get lucky. There are 12 babies for every daddy on the site, according to Gwynn.
“The demand is much greater than the supply, so not everyone is going to find what they’re looking for,” Gwynn said. “Just like there’s not a guarantee that you’re going to find your soul mate if you join another dating website.”
There’s also a high level of risk involved — more so than other dating sites, said Ryan Curtis, a university psychology professor.
It’s not surprising that men and women have chosen to seek this type of relationship, Curtis said. Psychologically, power and status are highly attractive to women and men place a high priority on a pretty face and youthful appearance.
Where the situation gets sticky, Curtis said, is the purpose of the relationship. Instead of looking to create long-term romantic connections, like more traditional dating websites, sugar daddy dating involves bankrolling a college student’s tuition, giving the man almost complete control over the relationship.
You can’t pay for school with good looks, and when a sugar baby is dependent on checks from an older man, Curtis said, a mutually beneficial relationship can turn predatory.
“You have to be really careful with what you’re doing with online relationships, any online dating relationship, but specifically something like that,” Curtis said. “If I can pose as a very wealthy man because I know that women want a wealthy man, it allows for being a predator in a way that I can’t do in person.”
SeekingArrangement.com does take some steps to protect its members. Users can’t list their last names on their profiles and, as stated in the terms and conditions, must contact potential babies or daddies through the site’s messaging system. Swapping contact information such as personal email addresses and phone numbers is forbidden.
Still, setting up an account is easy. Both babies and daddies are asked to list basic details like height, level of education and how often they drink or smoke, as well as what kind of arrangement they had in mind. Babies can ask for more than $20,000 a month.
According to the site, “all profiles and photographs submitted to our website are screened for relevancy.” Many of the site’s features, like messaging, are locked until a user’s profile is approved; although the screening only checks to see that the profile includes a legitimate picture and appropriate answers to profile questions.
The site will do background checks and place seals of approval on sugar daddies’ profiles, which costs them $50 per month. To be a Diamond Club Member, which includes verified income, a daddy must pay $200 per month.
Even with the privacy features, however, it’s not enough to motivate some students to join the site. Regardless of the high costs of a college education, students like Rachel Kuff said there’s no appeal to sugar daddy dating.
“It’s someone who is too lazy to do things themselves,” the freshman accounting major said. “I would never do it.”
“That’s like prostituting,” added Katelin McMaster, a freshman enrolled in letters and sciences.
Though having a sugar daddy carries a stigma, the reality is much different, said Gwynn. Many are just students looking for a little extra cash.
“There are girls from all walks of life on our site,” said Gwynn. “Most of these girls are very intelligent, very driven and empowered women who are confident. … There are people of all different backgrounds — there’s really no one-size-fits-all sugar baby.”
