How should I compare financial aid offers from USC and Northwestern?

Compare each award against that school’s own billed and estimated cost of attendance, not against the other school’s sticker price. A larger “total award” can be less valuable if it includes federal loans or work-study rather than grants and scholarships.

Make a one-year side-by-side worksheet with tuition and mandatory fees, housing and food, health insurance if applicable, books, personal expenses, and realistic travel home. Then subtract only grants and scholarships that do not need to be repaid. List federal direct loans separately, since they are a cost you will repay with interest, and list work-study separately, since it is earned through a job and is not an upfront reduction to your bill.

For each school, identify whether every grant is renewable and what renewal requires: full-time enrollment, satisfactory academic progress, a minimum GPA, continued financial need, or participation in a particular program. Also check whether the package assumes you will borrow a specific amount each year and whether parent borrowing is being treated as available funding.

Project all four years, not just freshman year. Include likely annual tuition increases, housing changes after the first year, and travel. Ask each financial aid office to clarify any ambiguous line item in writing.

The more affordable choice is the school with the lower four-year net cost after grants, the smaller required borrowing burden, and the clearest renewable terms. If the difference is modest, favor the offer with more grant aid and fewer assumptions about loans, work earnings, or future family contributions.