A growing number of Carleton students are turning to an online “sugar baby” service to pay for post-secondary education costs, according to SeekingArrangement.com.
Seeking Arrangement, one of the world’s largest online dating sites, allows “sugar daddies” to pay “sugar babies” for relationships. The site is home to more than five million users seeking “mutually beneficial relationships,” with over 2.5 million of those members being students, according to Seeking Arrangement CEO Brandon Wade.
“A majority of these students are seeking financial assistance to cover the cost of higher education,” Wade said.
This year, Carleton University was ranked fifth on the company’s annual list of “Fastest Growing Sugar Baby Schools” in Canada, with 111 recent student sign-ups. The University of Ottawa was ranked third, Ryerson University second, and the University of Alberta topped the list in first place.
“There are a lot of people who can’t afford college,” said Seeking Arrangement spokesperson Brook Urick. “Finding a sugar daddy is a great way to get the financial incentive, but also to meet people you might not have met otherwise, like mentor businessmen and women.”
Tuition fees have continued to rise over the past two decades. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the average cost of tuition will rise 13 per cent over the next four years.
Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (student issues) Alexandra Noguera said students are still struggling to pay for tuition.
“Every year, tuition goes up, and up, and up,” Noguera said.
Sugar babies receive an average monthly allowance of $2,750, according to Alexis Germany, Seeking Arrangement’s public relations specialist.
Allowances from sugar daddies are considered “gifts,” according to Urick, which would distinguish the service from prostitution since sugar daddies are not paying for “services rendered.”
Noguera said she understands why students would want to sign up for Seeking Arrangement as a sugar baby, but joining to pay off student debt is something “you would do in case of an emergency, break-the-glass situation.”
“I would understand where they are coming from to make this kind of decision, especially because [of] the amount of stress you face in university,” she said.
A communications student at Carleton, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they joined Seeking Arrangement to raise the money they needed to pay for school.
“It would go toward my necessities of living,” they said. “Depending on the time of year, it would go toward tuition if [the Ontario Student Assistance Program] didn’t cover enough.”
The student said they received a $2,000 monthly allowance from their sugar daddy.
“I wanted to save money before I came here so I would have a good starting point for buying food, paying for my tuition, and buying books because I didn’t want to take everything from my parents,” they said.
– Graphic by Christophe Young
