I am an international student from Brazil who was accepted to Williams and Vanderbilt (both with great scholarships). I plan to major in Economics and work with consulting/financial services after I graduate. Which one should I choose?
Thereās no right answer. You need to give more information about what you want your experience to be like. Both are good, but theyāre very different.
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If you donāt have US citizenship you will be looking at consulting / financial services in Brazil, not the US. Neither name will be more of an advantage than the other in Brazil, so choose the one that looks more interesting to you- that feels more like āyourā place. If you havenāt visited both of them watch a bunch of videos. Their personalities are pretty different.
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They are two very different types of colleges.
Vanderbilt is a large private research university, with 7,000 undergraduates and 3,000 graduate students (PhD and masters). Faculty split their time between teaching and research, and split the teaching between graduate students and undergraduate students. There are more faculty, and a more diverse set of topics in the field
Itās in the South, and itās in a large city, Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville has around 700,000 people, and there are around 1.9 million people in the urban area. The weather is generally hot and humid in the summer, warms and humid in the Spring and Fall, and cool and dry, sometime cold and dry, in the winter.
William is a small Liberal Arts College, with 2,000 undergraduates and some 50 masters students. It is focussed almost entirely on undergraduate education, and faculty teach undergraduates and their primary job description, followed by research. With fewer students, and therefore fewer faculty, with fewer topics.
Itās in New England (the Northeast), and itās in Williamston, a small town of 7,500 people, next to a South Adams, a slightly larger town of 13,000 people. The closest city is Albany, an hourās drive away. The weather is warm in the summer, early fall and late spring, cool to cold early spring and late fall, and very cold and snowy in the winter.
Summary:
Vanderbilt: large, many students, more faculty, but faculty have less time for undergraduates. Hot and humid to cool weather, largish city, in the South.
Williams: small, few students, faculty have more time for undergraduates, but there are fewer faculty (so fewer topics). Ward to very cold weather small town in rural area, in the Northeast.
I also recommend that you read up a bit on the differences between private American Research Universities and American Liberal Arts Colleges. They have few counterparts in other countries.
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I would give Williams the nod in terms of finance and consulting jobs in the Northeast corridor (Boston to NYC) vs. Vanderbilt. You may want to consider working in finance in the US before returning to Brazil.
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Also, although Williams is small liberal art college, its econ department is one of the larger among LACs. They have 25 active Econ faculty members vs. Vanderbilt which has 50. Williams, due to the 7 to 1 student to faculty ratio, actually has fairly large teaching faculty numbers vs. other schools.
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Thatās true, the question is whether this will matter if the OP will be returning to Brazil to work.
I would bet the farm that that is the goal, but unless the OP already has the right to work in the US, s/he will almost certainly not be able to do so. And, if the OP is already a citizen/has a green card, they would not be applying as an international.
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Given Williams size and location, itās not for everyone.
Vandy would provide a ton more diversity in terms of # of people youāll meet.
Also Nashville easier to get to, and has milder weather.
I terms of ānameā Iād say they are pretty close.
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Thatās a great insight, at the end of the day I feel like Williams is the one for me. Thank you so much
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Thank you very much, this definitely helped me make my decision.
Iām definitely considering working in the US before returning to Brazil. Thank you for the help 
boa sorte!
The hard part is finding a US employer willing to hire you and sponsor a work visa for you.
Many international students work in the US. You get a one year or three year ( if in STEM and economics is designated as STEM in some cases, not in others) to work without a visa and in the meantime the employer applies for your work visa.
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