The Associated Press ran an article this weekend by Sarah Skidmore Sell about a topic I thought I’d reported on before but don’t seem to have done—Sugar Daddies. To put a finer point on it, since the article was written largely from the recipient’s viewpoint, I think Sugar Babies is more accurate. The reporter interviewed several people including an anonymous female grad student attending Columbia University in New York City. She has a scholarship to cover the vast majority of her tuition but none of her living expenses in the super-expensive Big Apple. She tried having roommates, working a minimum-wage job, and freelance work but didn’t make enough to cover her expenses and her grades paid a price. Neither taking on debt nor getting mediocre grades were acceptable to her. She explained, “That’s just not why I am here. I wanted to find the most amount of money I could make for the least amount of effort.”

So, she surfed the free sites Craigslist and Backpage.com before trying SeekingArrangements.com, whose creator, Brandon Wade, began offering students a discounted rate when he learned they were a significant market. The Columbia coed currently has two sugar daddies. To one of them, she is similar to a girlfriend (except for the part about being paid) and to the other she is more like a traditional kept woman. Not mentioned was if either knows about the other or what sugar baby arrangements she has had previously, how much she receives each month, or if she reports it on her income tax.

She has already decided to continue sugar babying after graduation, remaining officially unemployed to allow her to defer repaying the $70,000 in loans she accumulated before she started doing for hire what most of her classmates do for free.

More on “sugaring” next time.