I see what you did there, but they are two different things, aren't they?
And for families making well into 6 figures who have saved wisely for their children's college education, $44,000 is not a lot of money. Is it a lot of money for families and students who can barely afford Rutgers and in-state tuition? Sure it is.
But back to your $1.4M/1.85M comparison, at a certain income point, there is not a huge difference. For Kirk C (that's what this was about) who is in that late stage of his life earning potential, a superficial analysis of his take home pay is only a difference of $200K. Yeah, $200K is a lot of money. But depending on his tax situation and what type of house he buys, etc. that may or may not be a lot of money to him, especially if one job is better than the other. In some cases the higher-paying job is the "better" job, and in others, the lower-paying job is the better job.
Your homerism shines through with each successive post. It's college and a college town. It's 4 years of a young person's life. Watching this video, in all truthfulness, it looks to be a lot nicer than downtown New Brunswick when you take off your scarlet-colored glasses.
And Purdue is 120 miles from Chicago. Maybe you have heard of it. It's a big city like NYC. One can drive to Chicago in under 2 hours. It takes an hour plus to get to NYC from Cook Campus.
You do realize that for someone from NJ, they will be "home" on winter and summer breaks, and many tech companies will be lined up to hire Purdue engineering and STEM students. Such a parochial view of life you have.
Wut? Are we talking top students or top athletes? With some rare exceptions, they are mutually exclusive. Top students may wish to go somewhere else than stay close to home.