I went to grad school at USC and worked for a while on a software development project at Stanford. Both were great places. To me the difference was you went to USC with the intention of getting a great job while you went to Stanford with the intention of starting a company. Of course that isn’t always what happens, and from what I’ve seen, the outcomes of most engineering grads from either school seem pretty similar. If money was no object, I’d go to Stanford. If money mattered and USC was offering me a full scholarship, I wouldn’t hesitate to go to USC.
In an attempt to increase its ranking and reputation, USC started offering full scholarships to students who had been accepted to Ivy, MIT, and Stanford-type schools. Maybe that started about 20 years ago, and USC was very open about it.