A little about me: I applied to the business schools/business majors of all the universities I applied to as I think I may want to go into business. However, I’m not a 100% set in business and want to attend a school where I can really figure out what I want to do as well as obtain good job opportunities.
Northeastern
Pros
Location
Co-ops basically guarantee a job after college
Good balance between social life and academics
Cons
Expensive but I wouldn’t be massively in debt
NU.in program (probably going to be in Boston this year which isn’t as fun as being abroad)
Bigger school (I’m more drawn to the small school atmosphere)
William and Mary
Pros
Prestige
Excellent academics
Very nice and quirky people
Cons
I have the “work hard, play hard” and the party scene seems very lackluster
What’s your cost for each? Where do you live and is distance and/or travel costs an issue? Where would you like to end up working after graduation (field and geographically)?
All of these have relatively strong business schools. I find Poets & Quants as the best source (with real data) for undergraduate business school rankings. It has Villanova ranked 12 overall and 17 for employment, Northeastern at 16 overall and 16 for employment, William & Mary at 21 overall and 9 for employment, and Santa Clara at 32 overall and 32 for employment. But you appear to be uncertain on business or at least want to explore. I’d say William & Mary has an edge overall.
Northeastern is larger and more urban than the others. I think it may also seem less traditional. Villanova and Santa Clara are more suburban, while William & Mary is in a small city.
If you want to work/settle East Coast, Santa Clara might not be as well known or connected. Not sure that should really be deciding factor though.
You cite grade “deflation” at William & Mary. I don’t think recent data backs that up. (See the gradeinflation.com website.) Average GPA in 2014 at W&M was 3.33, which is quite high among public schools. Villanova was 3.37 in 2015. In general, pretty much all schools have grade inflation over time. Santa Clara and Northeastern are not in the gradeinflation.com dataset.
W&M is ranked 6th or so for “Happiest Students” in Princeton Review, so it is probably a good school for the right type of student. It is social in its own way, but not a huge party school (although with about 30% or so Greek).
I went to Santa Clara long ago, so I thought I could add some color to your discussion. First, congratulations on that slate of options. You must have made your choice by the time of this response, so hopefully it can help others. The area immediately surrounding the Santa Clara campus is more residential, so I think it’s a fair critique to say that it doesn’t have the full-blown “college town” feel right off campus. Having said that, Santa Clara is quite close to San Jose, the second largest city in California, and less than an hour from San Francisco, which is smaller than San Jose but offering significant variety of night life. You can also bop over the mountain and be at the beach in Santa Cruz in about 45 minutes if that is your inclination. It has a train station that goes to SF and an airport minutes from campus. Lastly, the location of Santa Clara is conducive to getting opportunities in the tech industry as it is literally in Silicon Valley. These are all fine schools and I’m not suggesting Santa Clara is the best on your list, but I am saying that the green arrow has been going up for Santa Clara steadily for quite some time and it is likely just a matter of time before the name recognition an reputation catches up.