We’ve all heard the joke about paying for college by stripping, but do you ever think about the people who are actually doing it? Believe it or not, approximately 33% of strippers are also college students. And they are making bank!
One notable case of this situation is that Leilani Rios, a student and track team member at California State. Back in 2000, Rios was booted from the track tram after her coach found out about her after school job. When she was interviewed by ABCNews, she stated that it was how she was paying for classes. She went on to tell them that school came before sports, so she would not stop stripping.
Rios is right to say that stripping will help pay for college. Let us consider the cost attendance for UCF, including tuition, books, and living expenses as presented by the UCF Office of Financial Aid:
As you can see, this greatly limits one’s options when it comes to paying for school. Those who don’t have scholarships or college funds usually turn to loans. Student loans have caused crushing debt that will follow you around for the rest of your life and may never be paid off. It can prevent people from buying houses or starting families. Long story short, people want to avoid them and feel like the only way to do that is to avoid college all together.
Then there are those who go into stripping. The median annual salary for a stripper in Orlando is $47,547, but can be as high as $167,954. However, the average college cashier job only has a median annual salary of $19,889 and a high of $42,417. Let’s face it, stripping is pretty financially sound. It is one way to pay for your college tuition, living expenses, and still have enough left over for the Victoria Secret Semi-Annual Sale.
The only real downside (other than dealing with skeevy strip club managers and customers) is how stripping may affect your future career, relationships, and even school life, like it did with Leilani Rios. When coaches, employers, or even family members find out you are stripping, you could end up facing a lot of rejection. But that is not the stripper’s fault; she is doing what she needs to in order to get her education and stay out of debt. The real problem is the outrageous rates of tuition in this country and the negative stigma against sex and sexualisa.
So, we have two choices here: lower college tuition so girls do not feel like they must strip, or be okay with the fact some girls strip. It is a lucrative business with many opportunities for college aged women; you can’t judge them for making the clearly superior financial choice when it comes to paying for college.