It’s too simplistic to say Stanford is in a different league than USC. You want to study the arts - USC outshines Stanford - especially in cinematic arts and music. USC holds its own in engineering as well (especially at the graduate level). USC also has programs Stanford does not, like Dance and the innovative Dre and Iovine Academy.
In addition to the top 25 ranking in US News, USC has top rankings in Entrepreneurship at #6, #15 in most innovative universities, and #2 in Public Affairs. There are plenty of students that would pick USC over Stanford based on their interests and goals.