Young woman in San Diego sells virginity to pay her way through graduate school

    It is certainly not unusual for college students to go to great lengths to ensure their shot at education. Allowing themselves to get bogged down with student loans and working themselves ragged to pay their way through college is no foreign concept to many students whose parents cannot, or will not, bear the hefty burden for their sons and daughters.
    But going to more extreme measures to pay tuition has always been a somewhat less common, or at least less talked about option — that is, until now. Throughout the past several months, there has been plenty of buzz in the popular media about Natalie Dylan, the 22-year-old student from San Diego who decided to sell her virginity over the Internet in order to pay her graduate school tuition. She arranged to have the culmination of her auction occur at a location in Nevada where prostitution is legal.
    When Dylan's auction first came into the public eye last September, bids had reached approximately $243,000, but with news coverage came immense fame, which in turn helped the bidding reach approximately $3.7 million.
    The end of her story remains to be seen, but her situation has raised many eyebrows among college students. Though some may have heard the occasional rumor of classmates working as strippers or drug dealers to make ends meet, publicly broadcasting one's virginity in order to earn tuition money is a new phenomenon.
    "I've heard anecdotally that a lot of people strip to get through college and that it's a really easy way to make money, so if that's kind of a known thing then I could see how people would [choose to do] that," said Jason Prapas, a graduate student in the mechanical engineering department. "But stripping and sleeping with someone are pretty different."
    Senior Margaret Bennett echoed Prapas's comments, noting that Dylan's decision could be potentially dangerous. "I'm personally against it; that just seems like a really bad idea, even for health reasons alone … There's a reason it's against the law," Bennett said. "She made that choice and you can't stop her, but it seems like there are so many different things wrong with that, and it's so risky as it is. The guy could be a horrible person."
    Though her decision may be questionable, her motivation is concrete. It is no secret that tuition rates in the United States have seen a significant increase in recent history. The average tuition rate for a two-year graduate program in business is over $60,000. Medical schools cost, on average, $25,000 for the first year, and this does not include room, board, books and other basic living expenses. Dylan, who plans to pursue a master's degree in family and marriage therapy, is looking at similarly hefty bill.
    Even before thinking about graduate school costs, students first have to finance and obtain a bachelor's degree. Although many students can attend state colleges for less drastic tuition rates, some wish to attend more prestigious schools in hopes of obtaining better future jobs. For the 2008-09 academic year, Bates College had the highest undergraduate tuition rate with a $43,950 annual fee. And this number is only the price of attending the college and taking classes. When other fees are factored in, the priciest institution in the United States is Sarah Lawrence College in New York, which has an overall cost of $53,166 per year.
    Factor in undergraduate student loans, credit card debt and a big fat graduate school tuition bill in the future, and it is easy to see why students panic.
    Bennett feels that despite the inflated prices of education, there are alternative choices that do not include prostitution. "College tuition and its prices are huge — they're huge costs, but most people seem to find other ways around it," she said.
    Prapas continued that although he does not know the details of Dylan's situation, he finds it sad that she feels desperate enough to go to such lengths. "My gut response is [that] it's pretty awful, both that someone would feel they had to do that and that other people wouldn't be able to step in and make an alternative, whether it's the school or her family or something," he said. "It definitely shows you that if we had a free education system, she wouldn't have to go to these measures, but I think that without knowing too many details about the student herself … There's definitely some questionable decision-making there," he said.
    Dylan has received criticism for her decision, both in the media and among gossiping college students, but not all students think that what she is doing is wrong.
    "I think we all look at our own set of options," senior Arezo Bonakdarian said. "It's not something I would do … but if she feels that she can sell her virginity and it's worth selling her virginity, that's her business."
    While it may be her business, Bennett noted that graduate schools and future employers may not treat it as so.
    "Just having this press — for some things it would be OK, but for some things, like if you were going to be a politician, it would be horrible press," Bennett said. "This will have repercussions after [she's] gotten the money and gone to school too, so there's that to be thought about."
    Senior Amanda Harris believes that Dylan's actions are a reflection of the unfair burden placed on young people.
    "It's sad that tuition prices are high enough that you would have to be that desperate, that there aren't other options," Harris said.
    Dylan has made her way into the limelight because of the unique nature of her proposition; the intense focus on her virginity, however, is also a point of contention.
    "I don't think it's awful on her side. I think it's awful on the standpoint of people who are actually willing to pay for someone's virginity," Bonakdarian said. "It says a lot that in this day and age, we're in the 21st century and people still pride virginity that much that they're willing to pay for a stranger's virginity … I think that's really sad."
    Harris agreed, noting that Dylan's situation is not unique, and that many students who face similar obstacles are overlooked.
    "What I think is particularly sad about this is that I know girls at Tufts who are escorts and things like that to pay their college tuition, and why is it only getting press attention when it's one person selling her virginity?" Harris said. "I think that it needs to be examined further as to why this is the one issue that's getting more press and why the government [or some other] institution isn't looking into ways that they can help people better afford this without having to cross the line somewhere.
    "If she's making an educated decision for herself, then I think that's fine — that's her decision as an empowered woman … But I also think that there are a lot of other factors that play into it [and] that maybe, although she's saying ‘This is my choice,' maybe it's not really her choice, and I think that that's something that needs to be addressed a lot further."