[CalmLogic]

Seems pretty similar to me:

NEU:
Tuition 2008-2009
Fees 2008-2009
Northeastern University - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report

USC:
USC Catalogue: Tuition and Fees: Tuition and Policies
University of Southern California (Viterbi) - Engineering - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report

The I-20 for USC seems to be $49k in costs (including living expenses) for the first year:
http://www.urch.com/forums/computer-...t573876-3.html (Brown vs UCSB)

(And though Calfornia is an expensive place to live, so is Boston.)

BTW, professor ratings for grad CS courses at USC (though these ratings are not always reliable since only some students make comments and only some of the professors are rated):

"Good" professors:
Barry Boehm - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com ("The best there is, best there was, best there ever will be." Wikipedia shows his contributions to software engineering research.)
Ramesh Govindan - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaches graduate networking courses)
Parag Havaldar - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Multimedia Systems Design for Spring 2009)
Ming-Deh Huang - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (professor's website; will be teaching cryptography course and will be one of the professors teaching Analysis of Algorithms (CSCI 570) for Spring 2009)
Sven Koenig - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (CSCI 561a) for Spring 2009)
Dennis McLeod - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaches graduate database courses)
Clifford Neuman - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (courses taught are advanced operating systems and security sytems)
Ulrich Neumann - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com

"Average" professors:
Mary Hall - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com
Leana Golubchik - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com

"Bad" professors:
Jim Alstad - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Personal Software Process (CSCI 511) "worst class ever" for Spring 2009)
Winsor Brown - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Software Engineering I (CSCI 577a) for Spring 2009)
(another negative comment about the two professors above: "Winsor Brown and Jim Alstad are very bad professors.")
Richard Arratia - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Applied Probability for Spring 2009 -- no ratings for that course)
Jose MacIas - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Compiler Design for Spring 2009)
Marco Papa - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Web Technologies (CSCI 571) for Spring 2009 during the evening; Professor Horowitz is teaching the same course during the day)
David Wilczynski - University of Southern California - RateMyProfessors.com ("the worst professor I have seen at USC"; teaching Principles of Software Development (CSCI 201) for Spring 2009)

Unforuntately, one has to have a USC username and password to get access to the official course evaluations that are filled out my most students:
https://sait.usc.edu/provost/welcome.html

Ratings for NEU professors who teach CS grad courses:

"Good":
Javed Aslam - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (taught Applications of Information Theory to Computer Science CSG195 Fall 2008)
Ken Baclawski - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (taught Methods of Software Development CSG270 Fall 2008 -- no ratings for that course)
Matthias Felleisen - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching the mandatory grad course on Program Design Paradigms Spring 2009; co-author of the course textbook)
Riccardo Pucella - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (taught cryptography CSG252 Fall 2008)
Rajmohan Rajaraman - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Theory of Computation CSG714 for Spring 2009)

"Average":
Eliyahu Barzilay - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Principles of Programming Languages for Spring 2009)
Timothy Bickmore - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (taught HCI course CGS170 Fall 2008)
Gene Cooperman - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching High Performance Computing CSG185 Spring 2009)
Harriet Fell - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Graphics CSG140 Spring 2009)
Richard Rasala - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Web Development CSG175 for Spring 2009)
Ravi Sundaram - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (taught Wireless Networking CSG250 for Fall 2008)
Donghui Zhang - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Intro to Database Systems CSG130 for Spring 2009; taught Data Mining CSG230 Fall 2008)

"Bad":
Carol Hafner - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching Foundations of AI CSG120 for Spring 2009; professor's website)
Karl Lieberherr - Northeastern University - RateMyProfessors.com (teaching one section of Algorithms CSG113 for Spring 2009; ratings are only for other courses)

As with USC, the official course evaluations are only available to current students (by logging into MyNEU and clicking on the "Services & Links" tab).