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.
Downplayed: Alice goes to college with the primary goal of getting an education, but intends to find a boyfriend who 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.
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.
Gender Inverted: Bob goes to college with the primary purpose of picking up women, and marries Alice right after graduation.
Subverted:
Alice is more focused on a tough career and on making friends in general.
Alice is dating Bob, but then finds that her grades are plummeting, and she breaks up with him.
Alice's relationship with Bob isn't the be-all-and-end-all of her college career.
Double Subverted:
Alice meets Bob, enters into a relationship with him, and Bob encourages her to pick a different major. (One with fewer job prospects, and one that's considered "ladylike.")
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.
But Alice and Bob get married the summer after graduation.
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Trope State University, and starts dating Bob, a Jerkass pre-med student from a rich family, who happens to have some outdated views on the role of women.
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.
Discussed: "Alice and Bob just got engaged! It must be tough planning a wedding and surviving sophomore year!"
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.
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.
