When Miriam Weeks, who is better known as Belle Knox, was faced with being in crushing debt and going to another more affordable college, the college student went for a third option: porn.

In an essay by the Duke porn star published in Time, she said she saw porn as the best way to avoid debt and to continue attending Duke University.

After receiving financial aid, she still owed $47,000, so she reasoned that "a few hours of work on a porn set revealed to be the best way to avoid getting screwed."

But now that she's started working, she is no longer eligible for the $13,000 she was receiving in financial aid.

"My bill for next year will be a staggering $62,000," she wrote. "And I will pay this all on my own; the financial aid office does not care that I am legally financially independent. They view it as my parent's responsibility to foot the bill."

But she said that she has age on her side. It's the reason that she is able to get paid well as a porn star, and that she sees the parallels between demand for porn and the inflating costs of college tuition.

"Colleges today have zero incentive to lower tuition or make college more affordable. Either way, demand is high and the money will keep flowing," she said. "So why bother with thrift?"

She said that she has considered dropping out of the school.

She no longer has a "squeaky clean reputation," rarely gets to see her family and has been ridiculed. She said that, instead of focusing on the fact that she is in porn, people should pay attention to how she got there in the first place.

"Sky-high tuition bills result from a culture, from our President on down, telling every kid to go college, regardless of their future plans or ability to graduate," she said. "And they result from schools being all-too-happy to raise prices to catch all the money flowing from the federal spigot."

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