but...there's more to it.

"(2) Get books to study up on the GRE. The better her GRE score, the better her chances of getting into a good PhD program."

Almost right.

Competitive programs are all about your letters of recommendation and academic records as an undergraduate. The GRE is a formality and all it does is qualify students for generic support (available to any field, and ultra competitive). Departmental funds and selection are all about the compatibility of your research interests with the faculty, and the quality of all important letters of rec(and the scholars who write them).

Also...

The blogger who got the job over more qualified candidates was probably not deemed a 'flight risk'. People on the way up fast will move from institution to institution as they travel up the ladder -- necessitating another search. People paced in slower careers are desirable because they will stay and settle down, and likely to serve on committees.

Qualified mentors and advisors will tell you these things, not advice columnists.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having informed mentors in the pursuit of an academic career. People on the inside will let you know the truth of the matter. From admission to search committees, if you aren't developing a dialogue with someone on the inside(a favorite former instructor, who is a FULL professor), you are already off track. That's the place to start asking questions about a PhD -- not to Cary and the peanut gallery.

What 25 year old needs A) A House (with any kind of mortgage, let alone a big mortgage) and B) a car with a payment??! You are living like you are a middle aged person, not a young person pursuing a dream. It smacks of the unquenchable American desire to acquire acquire acquire, in the absence of reason. You will need this ability to reason if you want to go to graduate school and be successful, and so I am questioning whether graduate school would be right for you.

When I was in grad school (90s) I lived in a top 3 most expensive city. I had a small stipend (sub minimum wage) but I lived on it. A ROOM in a shared apartment (vs OWNING a HOUSE???!! The cost differential is about 5-10 fold!). NO vehicle for the first several years (walked or took the bus. Cost differential 10-20 fold!) until I saved enough for an old ass motor cycle ($1000). My expenses were about 700-800 per month, (rent, phone, electric, food) i.e. I lived within my means. How hard is this for folks to understand? Sure, if you want to own your own house and an expensive car, it might be necessary to whore yourself out. I would argue that whoring yourself out might interfere with your graduate studies and the pursuit of your dream, but what do I know. Depending on your field of study, your practical experience whoring yourself out so you can afford a nice car and house may provide you with useful insights. Perhaps not in the field of biochemistry, but in sociology, anthropology etc.

Live within your means. Well within your means. That means, focusing on your studies, and not your big fancy house and car. Anyways, if you are pursuing a PhD you should be driven primarily by your unquenchable thirst for knowledge and enlightenment, and not your unquenchable thirst for granite counter tops.

To the LW:

Go read this book: http://tinyurl.com/y23fzh

Then decide if you can really hack it. Sex work isn't universally degrading, but it isn't all third-wave fun and empowerment either.

Those who warn you about images coming back to haunt you are exactly right. I've considered a similar route at times and always decided against it for that very reason.

I was once close friends with a guy in his fifties who went out with the manager of a brothel - a 'madam'. They were friendly with many of the sex workers in that brothel. A lot of them were students or artists trying to fund their dreams. He said every one of them seemed to have a fucked up private life, and he, and they, were sure it was because of their jobs. He said a number of them told him over the years that they lost something doing sex work that they could never back. A sense of innocence maybe? The ability to romanticise sex and men?

Anyway. LW, by the sounds of it you haven't been sexually molested or raped as a child or any of those awful crimes that steal a woman's sexual sense of herself. ie it is still in tact. So don't mess around with it! Why are you putting it up for sale?

Sure, SOME women are sufficiently self knowing and confident and whatever to reconcile sex work with the rest of their life and their future. But I think these women are rare. The rest become tainted - or they feel that way anyway.

In describing your life it just doesn't sound justified to put your sexual self up for sale. Sell the house before you sell that.

BTW, that fear that you felt when that guy left your house? Why would you even consider feeling that way again just for money? You're not starving. You're not homeless. You have a lot of assets and opportunities. I think you're lacking in self esteem to even consider that you should do this.

The PhD is not the golden goose. Only do it if you have an absolute burning love for your topic. I don't think you do or you would have already found a way to be working on it.

Having some guy come to your house for your underwear is very different from doing sex work. I recommend phone sex for you if you were serious about this since no one would see your face. But the best advice I can give if I you do decide to do this is to NEVER work for anyone else if at all possible Always do your own thing: take your own pictures, design your own sites, etc. There are a lot of women out there making good money doing this and they are not giving an inch to a producer or director. But these are the women making the good money- you won't make it by dropping into a studio a few times and cracking a whip.