Is becoming an exotic dancer an effective way to pay for college?

Paying for College
1

<p>I live in Georgia, home of the Zell Miller scholarship. It pays for 100% of tuition. If I stayed in GA, I would go to UGA, participate in the Honors Program which I have been auto-admitted to, and get Zell.</p>

<p>However, I by no means want to go to UGA (or Tech). I want to go out-of-state where there are more opportunities. The main universities I’m looking at are UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell, and Duke. I know that in order to have a good education and to get into a good grad/med school, it’s better to go to a good college for undergrad. Beyond the difference of quality of education, there are other reasons I don’t want to stay in GA. UGA is basically my high school since everyone goes there, I don’t like the general student body, and I don’t like the location. It’s not a good fit for me. Neither is Tech.</p>

<p>My dad is encouraging me to stay in-state because the costs are cheaper. However, I don’t think that the price of a school should get in the way of the education I would receive there. His income is $200,000+ so we will most likely not receive any financial aid. I’ve been applying for as many scholarships as possible, but I’ve had no luck so far. He didn’t save any college money for my brother (current UGA student) or me during our childhoods, so the funds are hard to come by. He told me that it would be foolish to go out-of-state and end up with $80,000-160,000 in debt (plus future grad school costs). I figured he was right but I still would never want to go to UGA.</p>

<p>I was researching profitable jobs for a young woman without a college degree and I stumbled upon exotic dancing, or “stripping”. I know it’s not the most noble of careers, but it makes MUCH more than a minimum wage job. Being a college student, I would want to find a job with not too many hours with a decent pay. Exotic dancing definitely falls under this category. I told my dad that I’m considering this, and he had no reaction. I don’t know if he really doesn’t care or if he thinks I’m joking. Which I’m not. I am a virgin and this job does seem very degrading, but like I said nothing is worse than attending UGA. My future depends on this.</p>

<p>Now that you have the background information, do you think I should pursue this part-time career? Are there any other ways to pay for college that are just as easy?</p>

2

<p>sure, go for it</p>

3

<p>If you want, go for it. I see no issue. My fiance made a decent chunk of change by doing nude modeling in college and this isn’t all that different in reality. With that said, I don’t think you’ll make enough to not escape crippling debt. </p>

<p>I agree with your dad btw. I think it’s foolish to go out of state and frankly if he’s not going to cosign loans, it’s not even going to be possible for you to end up that in debt. </p>

4

<p>There are so many things wrong with your plan…</p>

<p>1) You would not earn $60k per year to pay for Duke working part time as a stripper.</p>

<p>2) All US MD med schools are very good, so going to UGA is good enough to get into a good MD school.</p>

<p>3) You wouldn’t have the time to work that job for enough money and do your studies to get the grades you’d need for MD or grad school.</p>

<p>There are more reasons, but that’s enough.</p>

<p>Go to UGA or somewhere else that would cost about the same. If you have Duke-like stats, then you have the stats to get large merit elsewhere.</p>

5

<p>I agree that you need to research how much you are LIKELY to be able to earn PART-TIME while going to school AND earning good enough grades to go to MD or grad school before you set your mind to this course that actually could CLOSE off some professions and options for you. You also need to explore the occupational risks you would encounter in this part-time gig, like men coming on to you and worse. It is not a path I’d encourage anyone I cared about to consider if they want to have a future, especially if they could attend an instate school and not pay tuition.</p>

<p>If you have sufficient grades and stats, see where you can get enough merit awards to equal in-state tuition and see if your dad/parents would fund that. Your HS counselor may have suggestions as to where students with your credentials are offered significant merit awards. If you need to take a gap year and reapply to have more merit options to choose among, that would be worth considering.</p>

6

<p>You could certainly make decent money in that profession but at what cost to your psych and well being? In that environment it is very easy to become caught up in unhealthy habits and situations. I’m not saying that every exotic dancer has drug or alcohol problems, self worth issues, or unhealthy relationship problems but it is a job that has a fair amount of workers with some or all of those issues. I did know a trained ballerina who put herself through a year of school this way but she quit because the lifestyle was starting to get to her. Again, not a slam on the ladies who do this for a living, just pointing out that along with the money comes other things you may not be able to handle. </p>