NYU student claims she works as a dominatrix to afford $65,000 tuition

New York University is known as having one of the most expensive tuitions in the US. Plus, the cost of living in New York City makes room and board pretty pricey as well.

For the 2015-2016 academic year, the total cost of an NYU education for a first-year student is $65,860.

The financial burden of paying for college can often affect students. One NYU student claims she has started working as a dominatrix in order to afford the school, she told a crowd at a protest on Monday, according to the New York Observer.

The student - who wore a mask and called herself "Mandy" - spoke at an event protesting NYU's 2031 expansion plan, a controversial proposal to give the school more land in downtown New York City. The protest was organized by NYU Faculty Against the Sexton Plan (FASP), a reference to NYU president John Sexton.

"I became desperate," Mandy said at the event, the Observer reports.

This is not the first time a student has claimed to turn to extreme measures to afford college. The New York Times spoke with a Columbia University student last year who worked at an underground strip club and brothel in New York City.

A Duke University student going by the name Belle Knox made news in early 2014 when she was outed as a pornographic actress. Knox told student newspaper The Duke Chronicle that "she turns to the adult film industry to help supplement her financial aid."

Mandy seemed to acknowledge these other students' decisions in her speech Monday.

"Student prostitution is not a rarity. Many of you know someone who has worked as a dominatrix, a masseuse, a stripper or an escort," the NYU student said. "It is an epidemic."

Asked about the student's claim, NYU spokesman John Beckman sent Business Insider the following statement:

The portrait FASP attempts to paint of NYU is at odds with the facts, and is neither honest nor fair; nowhere is that more the case than in the way they seek to portray our concern for our students. The simple reality is that NYU is successfully improving financial aid, reducing student debt, recruiting talented students and faculty, expanding research, prudently and successfully managing our budget and finances, and carefully planning for the University's future.