EarthSight However, just because someone didn't go through the conventional academic system (passed exams, wrote dissertations, succeeded in their degree & beyond ), doesn't mean they're not intelligent. Creative types and entrepreneurs often rely on their intelligence to carry them through uncharted territory when starting a business - fields which would confuse, stress, and confound someone who enjoys working within boxes, not outside of them. Just because someone chooses not to spend 3 + years in formal education, doesn't mean they are less classically intelligent than their peers.
I don't think anyone is disputing that. Its not an issue of lack of intelligence or success. In fact, I would define intelligence as an ability to thrive in your own environment. Posters have repeatedly commented on this thread how extremely rich and successful their male DPs/DHs are despite no university education, and how stupid, incapable and impractical us graduates are, despite most of us leaving home at 18 to live away from home.
Its just the usual story of some people simply preferring partners who have had similar experiences or motivations in life. I prefer university-educated, sporty, slim, attractive men. Other people might be more concerned about a good sense of humour and an ability to cook. I am not.
I honestly have difficulty with dating men who aren't even part of my usual extended friendship group or who share my interest in sport. I find they set my teeth on edge because they want to spend time doing different things to me, and upset my usual regime and don't get my "in jokes".
I prefer men who have the ability to follow formal requirements. I'm not keen on "creative types" at all and I have a particular hatred of men who boast about how rich and successful they are. Many graduates meet lifelong friends at university and many dentists/doctors/lawyers etc marry each other. Those professions require you to behave in a certain way, because you can be struck off for bad behaviour and have to appear in front of a professional practice committee if you so much as get a speeding fine. It therefore in most cases ensures that those men mostly conduct themselves well (I know there are exceptions). I simply cannot cope with men who cannot spell, who swear a lot, who make crude comments, etc - professional graduates nearly always do not.
Even after university, many of us make friends who are also graduates through similar interests. There are a lot of possibilities out there.
I'd also like to point out that for many women, a university education in a professional subject is a much better route into well paid employment than through what many of the men mentioned in this thread do, which is to work their way up through a company.
And graduates are also entrepreneurial. It is not something that is reserved to non-graduates. In my profession, its quite common to practice for a number of years and then to branch out and start a business in a related area which doesn't involve professional practice. And you are not seriously trying to tell me that dentists don't know how to run a business, how to borrow money and rent or purchase commercial properties, grant floating charges to raise money for expansion, etc? That graduates are somehow this conservative, timid breed who never start businesses? What nonsense!