Someone else made a similar post to this, so it gave me the idea of doing (mostly) the same.
I'm 30, male, and single. I haven't been able to find any candidates in my area; the good churches don't have very many members.
And of course, I won't marry outside of Christianity. I've tried asking on Facebook for my friends to set me up with a Christian girl. I've made profiles on PoF, Tinder, etc. hoping that by some miracle I'd find a believer on one of those platforms. Christian mingle and similar services have effectively no one near me.
I also have the added difficulty of feeling very disconnected from people who aren't intellectuals. Unfortunately, it's not an option for me to try to find a partner at a seminary.
So then, how might I find someone? What else can I try?
Time to move. I've heard this same story before. People saying 'can't find someone near me'. You gotta move. You have to be where the single women are. I knew a guy that flew all the way to Germany to find his wife. Married her, and flew her back to Kentucky.
Been married 20 years now.
A man, is a hunter. You gotta go hunting. If you saw a deer hunter, sitting in the middle of Main St, just camping out waiting for a deer to stroll downtown, you would think they were crazy.
If you saw a fisherman sitting with his pole and line down a sewer grate, you would thing they were crazy.
Deer hunter needs to be in the woods, because that is where the deer are. The fisherman has to be in the river, because that's where the fish are.
You gotta find where the single christian women are, and go hunting there. If there are no candidates in your area, then you need to look outside your area. That's how it works. G-d does not 'bring you a mate'. No woman is just going to randomly show up at your house and say "I think I'm led by the holy spirit to marry you."
Yeah miracles can happen, but I would not hold my breath on this.
Now there was one thing I heard you say, that you might want to reconsider.
Back in school, there was a girl there who was a ditzy blonde. I mean straight waist length blond hair, and the bubbly spacey personality that matched it. She was one goofy chick.
To give you an idea of what she was like, I ran into her in college, while crossing the campus. After she screamed my name, and gave me a big hug, we talked a while.
So why are you here?
"Oh I'm taking English!"
Right right, so for what?
"Oh, you know, to learn verbs and stuff"
I remember just biting my lip to avoid laughing at her, and just giving her another tight hug. She simply was this way. This is who she was.
I never asked her out, or talked to her that much, because I thought how could I possibly live with a woman, that I needed a coloring book and crayons, every time I wanted to talk to my wife?
That was 20 years ago. What I found out was, I was a fool.
How many super smart women have I met, that were cruel, jaded and mean? Sometimes the smarter a person is, just means they find more clever ways to be cunning and insulting.
That girl was not intellectual at all, but let me tell you what she was. She never insulted anyone. Never talked behind anyone's back. Never heard her say a bad thing about anything. She was kind, and caring, and loving.
That story above makes it sound like we were best friends, doesn't it? And if you saw us at the college campus embracing each other, you'd think we were best of friends, or maybe even romantically inclined.
The reality is, I only knew her from being in some the same classes together in high school, and had not seen her since. The reason she was so friendly is because that was her nature. She was just that type of warmhearted person.
If I had life to do over again, I would ask her out, and used a crayon and coloring book if I had to.
Here's the takeaway.
I understand that you wish to find a smart girl. Knock yourself out. Find what you want.
But a moral woman will beat a smart woman any day. A kind woman will beat a bombshell runway model woman, any day. A loving, caring, happy woman, will beat a dozen Ph.Ds in Quantum Physics, any day.
Do not exchange what is important, for a preference. I've met many women that were many times more intelligent than I am, who were not happy, or not kind, or not caring.
Keep your priorities right. Do not exchange what matters, for what is fleeting.