Chaim, yes, I just saw that WSJ article – other professional jobs have increased starting pay lately (contrary to your feeling), but not accounting … I heard about people going into nursing homes a lot .. In theory, this _is_ a professional job that requires some education, formal or not. In practice, this is one of the scarier occupation where it seems that one earns good money by violating respect to sheva and kavod habriut… there aer so many of these homes that get bad grades, newspaper front pages and even prison times.
I also don’t think everyone should go to Ivies, to the opposite, one should choose education corresponding to expected job. Say, women who plan to be involved with kids, may not choose to get ivy education, unless they qualify for financial aid