Now, Seeking Arrangement has come up with a list of colleges with the most students seeking sugar daddies, and can you guess which local school made the top ten? Yep, CU. Get details and the roster below.
Jennifer Gwynn, director of public relations for Seeking Arrangement, notes that the company "has been around since 2007. Our founder and CEO" -- Wade -- "was a self-proclaimed nerd who had a lot of money, but he didn't have the social skills to go along with it. So he created this website off his own needs."
The site's modus operandi is pairing young people of little financial means with folks willing to support them in exchange for...companionship. And as the economy tanked, the appeal of having a sugar daddy -- or perhaps a sugar mommy -- pay all the bills moved in the opposite direction.
"When things got tough for college students, we had a lot of students sign up," Gwynn notes. "Now, about 42 percent of our total population is college students, with most of them between the ages of nineteen and 21. I would imagine that after their sophomore year, they're looking for more than their schools can offer them in terms of financial aid.
"There's an overwhelming problem with the cost of education," she goes on, "so this is an alternative solution. We definitely have our critics, but really, we're just providing another resource -- connecting students with people who may be able to help them out in ways the schools or the government may not be able to anymore."
While both men and women are welcome to sign up at Seeking Arrangement, there's definitely a disparity in numbers. As Gwynn acknowledges, "there are about eight girls for every guy on the site -- so it's harder for girls to find what they're looking for right away, because there's such high demand."There are 2.7 million members worldwide," she adds, "so you should come in knowing it's not an instant gratification thing. It's just like any dating website: You need to find the right arrangement. And that could take a little longer if you're female."
As for guys, Gwynn stresses that "there definitely are sugar mommies, but they're somewhat elusive. They're very easily pleased, more monogamous, and they've got their pick. There are probably about twenty guys for each sugar mommy to pick from."
The site's list of colleges is culled from 2013 and looks at the number of .edu e-mail addresses from each institution. Most of the entries can be found in heavily populated states such as California, Texas, New York and Florida, making CU something of an outlier, especially compared to neighboring states. "There are no schools from Utah, and none from Idaho or any of the other mountain west states in the top 100," Gwynn says. "So it's unusual to see that Colorado made it so high on the list."
Here's the top ten, with the school names, the number of students from each, and illustrations culled from the Seeking Arrangement Facebook page.
Number 10: Texas State UniversityNumber of students: 189
Number 9: University of California, DavisNumber of students: 192
Continue to keep counting down the ten schools with the most members on Seeking Arrangement. Number 8: University of Southern CaliforniaNumber of students: 211
Number 7: Kent State UniversityNumber of students: 219
Continue to keep counting down the ten schools with the most members on Seeking Arrangement. Number 6: University of ColoradoNumber of students: 232
Number 5: Temple UniversityNumber of students: 251
Continue to keep counting down the ten schools with the most members on Seeking Arrangement. Number 4: Georgia State UniversityNumber of students: 269
Number 3: New York UniversityNumber of students: 347
Continue to keep counting down the ten schools with the most members on Seeking Arrangement. Number 2: Arizona State UniversityNumber of students: 409
Number 1: University of Central FloridaNumber of students: 474
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
More from our Strange But True archive: "Sugar daddies and cougars: May-December couples seldom rich or hot, study says."
