How should I compare Carnegie Mellon and USC’s net cost after financial aid?

Compare the actual aid offers, not each school’s published cost of attendance or a headline scholarship. Carnegie Mellon may make more sense for a student whose package contains strong need-based grants, while USC can be especially attractive for a student who qualifies for a substantial renewable merit award as well as need-based aid.

For each offer, begin with the full annual cost: tuition and fees, housing and food, books, transportation, health insurance if applicable, and personal expenses. Subtract only grants and scholarships that do not need to be repaid. This produces the clearest first-year net cost. Keep loans in a separate column, since they reduce the bill now but create debt later, and do not treat work-study as a discount: it is an opportunity to earn wages through a job, not money automatically credited to your account.

Project the comparison across four years. Ask each financial-aid office how grant aid, tuition, housing, and loan amounts are likely to change; whether the package assumes an annual student contribution; and whether study abroad, a fifth year, or program-specific fees would alter the total. The more useful figure is not simply the lower first-year bill, but the estimated four-year family cost plus expected borrowing.