<p>As others said stanford does not offer any sort of merit aid, so these two costs just aren’t comparable. It might have leverage at another school that does offer merit aid (UChicago, Tulane, ect.) but none of the schools that are strictly need-based. Unfortunately it will be a hard choice between Stanford at full price and USC at potentially no price, although that is not an easy scholarship to get and the competition is fierce for it, so don’t consider that in the bag quite yet. Have an honest conversation with your son about the situation. </p>