Obviously this is your choice, there are tradeoffs all over the place, and all that we can do is give an opinion. These are my thoughts…
I am not a big fan of starting on a different campus. I do not really understand why NEU does this.
I am also from the northeast, although originally from Montreal and then I came way down south to Boston for university, and now decades later still live in the northeast. I visited U.Wisconsin a couple of times when I was in university, and a two or three more times since. At least in my limited experience people in Wisconsin are pretty straightforward, honest, and maybe a bit easier to get to know compared to other places where I have lived.
On the most part however people are people pretty much anywhere.
I have some relatives who still own farms, although not in Wisconsin. In my experience rural people in many cases tend to be straightforward and honest. Be straightforward and honest and you will be fine.
And I do think that U.Wisconsin brings in students from all around the US, and to a limited extent outside the US also.
Employers in the northeast know how good U.Wisconsin is. Of course they also know how good NEU is.
$4k in loans is not that bad for an engineering degree. No loans is better. Both universities are academically excellent and well known across at least the USA. I like the coop program at NEU, but there will also be lots of opportunities for coops or internships at U.Wisconsin. Oakland is not my favorite part of California, and I do not like the idea of having a freshman year on a different campus. I do not like the idea of doing freshman year at a school that does not have your major. Then you show up on campus as a sophomore and do not know most of the people there. Wisconsin will have real winters, with probably no more snow than Boston but colder temperatures.
If it were me, and if this was the choice, I think that I would go with U.Wisconsin. However, both universities are very good.