Basic Trope: A young woman goes to college, primarily to find a husband.
- Straight: Alice goes to college, and spends more time primping and scoping out the eligible bachelors on campus than studying. Eventually, she enters into a relationship with Bob, and marries him shortly after graduation.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice starts dating Bob a couple of weeks into the semester, and drops out in order to plan her dream wedding to him, even though they haven't even discussed marriage yet.
- Alice starts dating Bob in the fall, and is engaged by spring break. They get married while still in school, and continue their studies.
- Downplayed: Alice goes to college with the primary goal of getting an education, but intends to find a boyfriend whom she could see herself marrying while she's at it.
- Justified:
- Alice is living in a time or place when education for women was new, and primarily was to make them good wives and mothers, and when people tended to marry young.
- The culture surrounding Alice tells her that a college-educated person is the ideal marriage partner, so she attends because she's more likely to snag such a person in their natural environment and actually engage in their intellectual interests.
- Inverted:
- Alice is in a long-term relationship with Bob, and dumps him in favor of going Back to School in order to build a better career for herself.
- Alice can't afford college, and marries the much wealthier Bob so he will pay her studies.
- Gender Inverted: Bob goes to college with the primary purpose of picking up women, and marries Alice right after graduation.
- Subverted:
- Alice is dating Bob, but then finds that her grades are plummeting, and she breaks up with him.
- Alice is going to college primarily to look for men, but only for short term physical relationships.
- Alice gets married shortly after she graduates High School.
- Alice is in a relationship, but not married.
- Alice goes to college, but isn't trying to find a man.
- Alice gets engaged shortly after completing her bachelor's degree, but tells Bob she wants to wait until she's finished with her master's degree before getting married.
- Alice turns down Bob's proposal, not because she doesn't love Bob, but because she took out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, and knows that $50,000 in debt is not a good way to start a marriage. With her student loans (and if Bob has them, his too), they won't be able to afford to have the nice wedding Alice has dreamed of since she was a little girl, or buy a house, or support a family. Hell, they'd barely be able to afford to rent an apartment and have an Elopement!
- Double Subverted:
- Later, they get back together, and once again her grades take a nosedive as she puts more energy and time into her relationship than studying.
- Alice gets pregnant, and her parents force her to marry the father.
- Because she is married, she doesn't see the need for college.
- As soon as she gets her master's degree, she and Bob have their wedding. And while she was working towards her master's degree, she and Bob were living together, and planning their wedding and how they were going to pay for it.
- Bob, who comes from a wealthy background, offers to pay off Alice's student loans. Alice then accepts his proposal.
- Bob assures her that he understands, and offers to have a longer engagement until either the loans are paid off, or Alice decides that she's put enough of a dent in her loans that starting a life together won't be a problem.
- Parodied:
- Alice falls in Love at First Sight with an Expy of Bluto from Animal House just because he's there.
- There is an actual degree called the MRS (which majors in college dating and marriage), complete with courses, classes, teachers, credits, and advisers.
- Zig Zagged: Four young women enter Trope State University in the same year for very different reasons: Alice is looking for a man, and marries Bob shortly after graduating; Brianna wants to focus on her studies, but winds up dropping out to marry Chris; Claire wants a husband, but doesn't find one and marries someone who didn't even go to college after she graduates; and Diana wants an academic husband so badly that she stays in college long enough to get a legitimate Masters and a PhD.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't care about dating in college, and for that matter Does Not Like Men.
- Alice is more focused on a tough career and on making friends in general.
- Alice is not enrolled in college.
- Alice marries Bob after finishing her degree, but only does so because they were in a long relationship which was of secondary importance to each others' degrees.
- Alice's relationship with Bob isn't the be-all-and-end-all of her college career.
- Enforced:
- Values Dissonance (may be Deliberate Values Dissonance if it's a Period Drama)
- Career Versus Man
- Lampshaded: "I want to get married ASAP after college and live Happily Ever After with my true love!"
- Invoked:
- Alice goes to Trope State University, and starts dating Bob, a Jerkass pre-med student from a rich family, who happens to have some outdated views on the role of women and encourages her to pick a different major, one with fewer job prospects and is considered "ladylike".
- Alice goes to a Christian college or university, and is encouraged by everyone from her parents to the dean to get married ASAP, so that she won't be tempted to have sex and lose her "purity," and also so that she can start (what they consider to be) her proper roles of caring for her husband and bearing his children ASAP.
- Exploited: Bob wants a Housewife to take care of his every domestic need, so in college he looks for girls who are searching for a husband.
- Defied:
- Alice breaks up with Bob when she sees that he doesn't love her for who she is but rather what he thinks she should be, and doesn't support her choices in life.
- Alice chooses not to attend college at all after she gets her high school diploma.
- Discussed: "Alice and Bob just got engaged! It must be tough planning a wedding and surviving sophomore year!"
- Conversed: You don't go to college to find your groom; you go to find your bridesmaids...and what you want to do with your life!
- Implied: Alice and Bob got married right after college, and she became a Housewife straight away.
- Deconstructed: Alice's true potential is being held back as she focuses on "getting a man".
- Reconstructed: Alice strikes a healthy balance between a relationship with Bob, keeping her grades up, and forming friendships. She chooses a major that she likes and is good at, and one that will hopefully provide her with lots of career options. Her family, her friends, and Bob are supportive of her and her choices. If the two have kids, they are both able to negotiate with their workplaces to have enough hours to provide for their children, but also be able be a part of their lives.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice and Bob marry shortly after graduation, but they are not mature enough for marriage, and get divorced within three years. Meanwhile, Alice, who was so focused on being Bob's happy little Housewife needs to reinvent and rediscover herself now that the marriage is over.
- Alice and Bob are only getting married because they hooked up during a frat party in late January, and over spring break, Alice went to the doctor and found out she was pregnant, and her parents forced her to marry Bob around graduation. Neither of them wants this marriage.
- Bob didn't so much as "hook up" with Alice at that frat party as drug her drink and rape her. Alice is forced to marry her rapist and carry his child to term.
- Played For Laughs: Alice and Bob have their wedding on the day of their graduation, and wear their wedding outfits under their graduation gowns, then get married in their dorm room with their mortarboards still on. Then they pack up and leave campus in a car with "JUST MARRIED & GRADUATED" painted on the rear window.
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