marry above (one's) station
To marry someone who is of a higher social class or standing than oneself.
A: "I hear that the local fishmonger's daughter is betrothed to a rich foreign lawyer!" B: "My word, she's certainly marrying above her station, isn't she?"
For all the talk that social classes have been wiped away in recent years, you will still find people who believe one can't or shouldn't marry above one's station.
Compared to the question:
He's thinking of making advances to the hospital director's daughter. If you ask me, he's got ideas above his station. He's not set up for life or anything!
He's hoping for (/ He thinks he is qualified for) something unsuitable for someone of his social position.
Answer
That means in German that he has ideas that are nicht standesgemäß
To that dict.cc says:
- normalized {adj} [conforming to a social norm or standard]
- standardized {adj} [brought into conformity with a social standard]
- sociol.befitting one's rank {adj}
- sociol.befitting one's social status {adj} [postpos.]
- having basic rules or protocols {adj}
- to marry within one's social class
Making that
Er denkt darüber nach, der Tochter des Krankenhausleiters Avancen zu machen. Wenn du mich fragst, hat er Ideen, die nicht standesgemäß sind. Er ist nicht reich genug oder irgend sowas!
While Stand is not an official characterisation, social position or social status are still distinguished in the Form of Stellung, gesellschaftlicher Rang, Satus and the word standesgemäß escaped the linguistic fogging of implied legal and societal levelling of ranks. As is evidenced by the continued use of the word I suggested:
standesgemäß
Bedeutung
entsprechend den Vorstellungen, die aus der Zugehörigkeit zu einem Stand abgeleitet sind
Beispiele:
eine standesgemäße Erziehung, Heirat, Verbindung
standesgemäß leben, auftreten
sich standesgemäß kleiden
standesgemäß heiraten
Drei behäbige gemütliche Landleute, die eigentlich standesgemäß dritter Klasse fahren sollten
So, since the original describes the situation as 'daughter of director' (desgnating her inherited status) 'advances' (love relationship desired, previously clearly wanted to end in marriage) and 'ideas above his station' (societal status of the Romeo being lower than daughter/director) and 'not set up for life' (Romeo's staus, measured in his financial situation and prospects) any colloquial translation looses precision and switches register. This is about class and a perceived mismatch based on that concept, regardless of what you want the speaker to say instead.
Therefore the original translation offered in the question is in fact already quite good. With a caveat.
Wenn du mich fragst, sollte derjenige sich schleunigst seines Standes besinnen ...
It is too freely transforming the merely descriptive observation of a class-conscious speaker into a prescriptive statement. The prescriptive part is only weakly implied in the original version.
seines Standes besinnen = he should remind himself of his station (and he should stop thinking of daughter)
er hat unstandesgemäße Ideen = He has ideas above his station (while the English is unidirectional aspirational, the German is strictly speaking bidirectional in characterising the mismatch)
Examples abound on that source site:
Der schwedische Geschäftsmann ist ohne edle Abstammung. Heute sind bürgerliche Ehepartner im Königshaus keine Seltenheit mehr. Doch zu dieser Zeit galt eine solche Hochzeit noch als nicht standesgemäß und war demzufolge unerwünscht.