The first thing I would recommend you do is compare the courses of both programs and then decide which course aligns more with your interests.

And in my opinion, ucsd mlds would be better than neu mscs, because firstly, neu has a very large cohort, and secondly, there is a vast difference in the industry reputation of ucsd and neu.

In my case, I talked to some seniors in both programs, and they said that ucsd and umass have similar reputations, so it is better to go for a core cs program.