I agree with BP Totty’s first post.
In my day, after girls finished Yeshiva High School, many were in the Shidduch Parsha right away and started looking to get married, and, while doing so, were either in college or in a trade school, training for some kind of Parnossa. The boys attended college or trade school, and were learning Torah at the same time, so they would be prepared for Parnossa. Girls and boys saved up their money until they got married. Going to Eretz Yisroel for a year, or learning full-time, was an option. Going to Seminary was an option, or for girls who wanted a teacher’s license, and going to Seminary here in the US was fine. We didn’t hear stories about a “Shidduch Crisis.”
Now all of a sudden, going to Seminary has become a “style” for girls, and Heaven help you if you don’t go, or if you don’t go to Eretz Yisroel for a year. Boys have to sit and learn full-time for a while. Why can’t a girl stay in the US and start looking for a Shidduch right away? Why must every boy be a Yisochor? Is there no room for a Zevulun, who works full-time and is Kovaya Itim to learn Torah during the day, and gives his Maaser money to help support Torah study?
Of course, every Jewish man and boy must learn Torah. But not everyone can be put into the same “pigeon hole.”
Why isn’t a girl good-enough, if she didn’t go to Seminary? I have a long list of girls for whom I daven for Shidduchim, who are pretty and accomplished and went to all of the right schools, and they’re in their mid-20’s and still not married R”L.
Isn’t it more important that the boy and girl have the same Hashkofos and get along, for a Shidduch?