I know this is late, but my son just went through this exact question and he is from a highly ranked high school where a lot of the students do go to the highest ranked colleges. After several visits and a lengthy debate, he decided on the USP. He felt that the scholars program at Northeastern gave him more flexibility to map out his future to accomplish his goals, including to found his own business, rather than to just go through school and work for a preexisting company. Additionally, the academics seem to be rigorous enough that he will still be challenged and, although not part of the USP, his AP credits will given him a lot of flexibility on the classes he takes. He knows it will be dependent on him to make use of all that the program offers. My son did read, edit and approve this message.
By the way @PengsPhils, he will be a CS major with extensive experience, so any advice you can give him to get the most out of the NEU CS program would be helpful.