Companionship for tuition... a do or a don't?

Some Hub honeys are searching for sugar online and tapping into a dating website that promises to pit them with wealthy men willing to pay for college tuition expenses in exchange for some company.

Brandon Wade, founder and CEO of seekingarrangement.com, a website that claims it connects “Sugar Daddies” with “Sugar Babies” to form “mutually beneficial arrangements,” started the site in 2006.

“In all my past relationships I have been a sugar daddy in a sense because not only am I giving [girlfriends] school and life advice, but financial help,” he said.

Wade said all relationships include monetary assistance.
An MIT grad and former Boston resident, Wade said regular dating sites were horrible, so he started his own.

Now, more than 800,000 registered users are logged on----and 35 percent are female students looking to trade their time for college cash.

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to date a wealthy man or a beautiful girl and that’s what this site is about,” he said. “If there is chemistry there will be sex. Whether it’s a Christian dating site or Match.com. You go there to find intimacy.”

Wade said the site doesn’t promote prostitution and his staff filters out members that abuse the service.

But a 23-year-old UMass Boston student, who didn’t want her name used, said in her experience most of the men wanted sex for money.

“Out of the 50 guys I’ve talked to I would say 40 of them want to pay for play,” she said. “It’s dangerous if you are naïve, or someone that doesn’t really care about what they do to get what they need to get.”

The student went on one date with a married man she said, who offered her life advice but didn’t ask for intimacy.

“I’m not going to sleep with someone for money,” she said. “The goal would be someone to be a mentor, with a loan situation, but I'm not looking to be sexual with anybody.”

Wade warns women that the site is like a double-edged sword and they need to use their best discretion.

"If you’re not careful you might get cut," he said.

So what do you think? Guys, would you be willing to pay a college girl's way in return for "companionship?" Ladies, what would you be willing to do for a little extra help? Metro and EductionOption.com asked two of their opinionated ladies on staff to offer their very different viewpoints. Who do you agree with?

Integrity wins over Louis Vuitton handbags

Carly Ba ldwin 

I have student loans. I have $40,000 worth of student loans.
   
And sometimes, when I make myself yet another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, I think, “Gosh, wouldn’t it be nice if someone, anyone, could help me out?”
 
But then I imagine who that ‘someone’ might be. In my mind, he’s pushing 70, overweight, bespectacled. An accountant, maybe.
 
And I imagine sitting across from him at dinner. Accompanying him to the opera. I don’t even want to imagine what else my “sugar daddy” might expect in exchange for helping me pay off $400 a month.
 
The call girl who famously brought down former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Ashley Dupre, apparently wasn’t making enough as a hostess to afford Louis Vuitton purses and trips to St. Tropez. She decided to enter the big-bucks world of high-class prostitution. I’m sure she pocketed more cash in one night than I make in a month.
 
But in exchange for all those expensive purses, she sold much more than her body: She sold her integrity. And that’s exactly what every young woman is doing when they put an ad out looking for a someone richer and older to help them pay the bills.
 
I’ll stick with my peanut butter sandwiches, thank you very much. And because I know I’m worth so much, few men could afford me anyway.

Dating is a give and take... so take whatever you can get

Cassandra Garrison

 The sugar daddy/sugar baby relationship is one that’s as old as the ages. What exactly makes a man signing up for this site any different from him joining a more mainstream dating site and choosing his preferred age range in a woman to be 20 to 30 years younger than his own?

 In college, girls date all kinds of guys who are wrong for them. I know I did. They engage in consensual sex with other college students, but what do they get from it? Usually nothing. I can see why it would be tempting for a woman who is drowning in student loans to say, “hey, I’m dating college guys who I have no future with anyway. Why not date someone who can help me along the way? Why not get something out of it, damnit?”

The college women who choose to do this are probably the most efficient sugar babies in the history of “mutually beneficial relationships.” If they’re this passionate about going to school, these women could be future CEO’s, doctors, presidents, not just useless trophy wives.

Wouldn’t you prefer they find a way to fund their education rather than being forced to drop out, leading them to unemployment and a life that forever depends on the system? Ok, maybe that’s a little far fetched, but do you see my point?

College women seeking sugar daddies know exactly what they are getting into when they join the site. That being said, there is nothing on the site that says all members are expecting a sexual relationship. A sugar baby playing her cards right could be in for a pretty sweet time. Plus, there is something more forgivable about using someone to pay for a college education rather than clothing and jewelry.

Find more about sugar daddies and their sugar babies on Metro.