Do escorting and college mix? Yes: 7, No: 7

Many young women work in the adult entertainment industry while attending college and working toward their degrees. While the most popular adult career for college coeds may be stripper (or exotic dancer, if you like), many students are turning to the escort industry as a way to earn living expenses, make extra money or pay for school. The explosion of the escort industry through Internet offerings has made it an available and appealing part-time career for young women.
Being an escort isn’t like taking a part-time job as a waitress at the local diner. It has much more serious implications and consequences than a part-time job you can quit at any time. Being an escort involves lifestyle changes that create both good and bad effects for a woman. Before taking the plunge into the industry, a college student who is aspiring to be an escort should carefully analyze the advantages and disadvantages to entering the profession:

Why, yes, they do!

  1. Escorting helps to pay the bills. Nearly all college students have felt the money crunch in one way or another. They’ve found creative ways to budget, learned to exist on a diet of Ramen noodles in order to save up money for weekend activities and sacrificed to fund their college careers. Working as an escort produces significant income that helps to reduce student loans, pay back credit card debt (or avoid their use, altogether), buy expensive text books, fund rent, buy food and take care of other related expenses when you’re in college. It’s a good way to incorporate immediate sums of money into your budget when you need it. Most college kids are not able to live on the stipend they receive in graduate school or from the student loans they receive as an undergrad. As a result, escorting provides a way to live comfortably.
  2. Escorting is better than other part-time jobs. Unless you really love working in the campus cafeteria flipping burgers or answering phones in the admissions department, escorting is a much better college career than other opportunities you are likely to find. An escort’s schedule is much more flexible, allowing time off to study or socialize with friends. Plus, if you have a test or a paper due on an upcoming day, you can schedule yourself with plenty of time to prepare, unlike a job that requires you to work its mandated hours. Even though an escort must book clients when they are able to meet, you can still maintain a flexible schedule that makes college life possible. (And, the late nights that people assume escorts must keep are few and far between, depending on the clientele you attract.) The pay you receive for your work is better than laboring at the local fast food joint. Bringing in $250 or more per encounter beats the typical menial jobs you might work otherwise. And, if you’re careful with your client selection and the way you market yourself, your working environment will be much more luxurious than other part-time gigs you would probably find. Many escorts meet clients in upscale hotels, complete with room service if they wish.
  3. Escorting provides great networking opportunities. Regardless of which professional industry you plan to enter after college, success is often a matter of who you know, instead of what you know. By meeting powerful industry leaders through your escorting work, you may gain connections that will help you obtain references, internships or that first job when you need it. Additionally, through meeting up with clients in various industries, you can learn more about professions you might be interested in pursuing. Most clients love to mentor a young person, and sharing useful information with an escort is a bonus for them. They are usually happy to provide insight and give advice to an escort who is serious about her future career.
  4. Escorting gives you confidence and sophistication that isn’t learned on most college campuses. Learning to market and present yourself to clients is a huge part of being a successful escort. In addition to perfecting your image, you also acquire experience with people, demonstrating (with a degree of humility) to your clients that you are exceptional and worth every penny they pay you for your time. And, it requires real gutsiness to take your clothes off with a complete stranger and find comfort in your own skin. If you can do that, any job interview or professional situation in the future should be a cinch to master, not to mention that public speaking class.
  5. Escorting builds your communication skills. Booking encounters, meeting clients face to face and retention of regulars require great abilities to express yourself and listen. Learning ways to communicate tactfully, professionally and, sometimes, firmly, are required of an escort. Written and oral communication skills are enhanced through practice and trial and error. Escorts make mistakes by being vague or unclear with clients, but they learn from their errors and improve their abilities. Additionally, escorts have to become comfortable with the art of small talk. When first meeting a client, small talk is essential to starting the encounter off well. Mastering these skills sets you up well for any career you choose to pursue in the future and for engaging in class discussions or other university-related activities.
  6. Escorting gives you a chance to get a taste of the “real world” before being fully immersed into it. Handling your money, learning to save, organizing your schedule and setting priorities are all parts of being an escort. And, many students don’t know how to handle all of these tasks when they are thrust from university life into reality.
  7. Escorting during college puts you at the prime age for client preference. Even though there are clients out there for every age and type of escort, a huge market exists for the 18- to 22-year-old escort. Many clients want a taste of youth, and they look for it by booking encounters with young women who exuberate optimism and freshness. Clients want a beautiful woman who is wrinkle-free and in the prime of life. Not only will you find numerous clients, but you may also discover many agencies looking for women your age. Agencies know that the college-aged market is hot for escorts, and they attempt to stock their listings with escorts who match the desired description. During your college years, you should have no difficulties finding clients for your part-time escorting business.

Well, no, they don’t…

  1. Escorting makes romantic relationships difficult. Often, during college, women learn about relationships and how to really communicate with a mate or partner. However, when you’re an escort, you face more than the usual challenges to romance. Boyfriends don’t usually like sharing their girlfriends with other men, which escorts are required to do. Boyfriends and dates may not understand your career choice and judge you harshly. Even if a boyfriend claims to understand your job as an escort, it will probably be a repetitive issue between you and him, sometimes to the point the relationship fails before it even gets a good start. And, if you don’t tell your boyfriend about your job, you are basing your relationship on lies from the beginning, which is never good. In addition to being an obstacle to romance during college, your experiences may stunt your desires and abilities to develop long-term relationships in the future. Many escorts reveal that they have seen too many marriages fail, clients lie to their wives and dysfunction, in general, to desire a relationship of their own.
  2. Escorting may infringe on your social life. Often, a dedicated student finds that her social life is impeded severely enough with just a demanding school schedule. Between exams and assignments, little time is left over for fun. Escorts often find this is even more true for them. During free time, escorts are dedicating effort to their part-time jobs. Marketing, communicating with clients, getting ready for encounters and other aspects of being an escort can take a lot of time. Additionally, if you do find time to go out with friends, social dates may be canceled if you get a good offer for an encounter from a client.
  3. Escorting has a huge impact on your priorities. Many escorts who are going to college find it difficult to stay focused on their original goals. They know that school is essential to getting where they want to be in life in the future. However, the immediate present often creates its own set of priorities: when rent is due, escorting is a priority to get some fast cash. After blowing off class or not studying for an exam in favor of escorting a time or two, it gets easier to do it again and again. It may even seem more fun or attractive, because it creates instantaneous pocket cash for needs or wants. (Going to class doesn’t earn you money that you can put in the bank.) It’s hard, but escorts who want to graduate with a degree, must buckle down and establish firm priorities and boundaries that keep their eyes on the prize. Otherwise, it’s easy to get distracted.
  4. Escorting influences your lifestyle greatly. Even though situations unrelated to escorting may cause a student to consider dropping out or doing questionable things, escorting has a strong impact on how you see the world and the lifestyle you lead. Many escorts find that as they make increasingly more money, they don’t think they need to go to college anymore. Additionally, they may enjoy a much more luxurious lifestyle and create extravagant spending habits that are hard to maintain after college and the escorting career is over. And, some escorts find they have an appreciation for the older men who are their clients, losing interest in men their own ages. While none of these things are inherently bad, they can create uncomfortable or challenging situations in life.
  5. Escorting can leave a student feeling drained. College life is tough enough without adding an escorting career into the mix. Working as an escort is much more demanding than a part-time job at the student union or other places near campus. Escorts have to work the back-end of their careers, in addition to giving their “alls” to clients during encounters. It’s hard work. Couple that with studying, rigorous school schedules and maintaining a social life and a student can be easily exhausted. Grades can suffer, in addition to your health.
  6. Escorting can lead to stigma and judgment on campus. College students are very hard on one another, and they can be especially judgmental of a co-student involved in the escort industry. When/if word gets out about your “extra-curricular” activities, social groups may shun you, scholastic clubs you belong to may ridicule you and other students may harass you, asking for “dates”. Your sorority or other clubs may ban you, and life could become very lonely and cruel.
  7. Escorting may affect you well into your future. Not only can life on a college campus be difficult if your secret career is discovered, but your future life may be affected, too. Employers and people, in general, are usually pretty forgiving of transgressions people commit while they are still in school. For instance, in the long run, very few people cared that President Bill Clinton smoked weed while he was a student. Lots of people are arrested in fraternity-related incidents or get in trouble in other ways. These mistakes are commonly glossed over or forgotten about. However, judgment about being an escort is much more harsh. Many women have been fired from professional positions, despite good job performance, when employers discovered information about their past careers as escorts. Your escorting career may follow you forever.

Regardless of the listed advantages and disadvantages (and any you may add to the list), you have to weigh what is best for you. Your personal decisions should be based on your goals, happiness and what you believe, in your heart, is the best for you and your future. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise; make your own choices and move forward with them.