No offense to your son intended, but I doubt he has any real idea at this early stage of his college experience just how much Univ. of Minn. has to offer him as a physics major.
First of all (and I'm certainly no expert; just a "talented amateur"
), UMinn is very good in the sciences, engineering, and math. Here's but one small example:
http://www.nnin.org/nnin_2006reu.html
As you can see, UMinn (Twin Cities) is one of the sites for the NNIN.
UMinn offers summer REUs in chemistry, physics, materials (interdisciplinary), and math (Duluth):
http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list...fm?unitid=5052 http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list...fm?unitid=5048 http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list....cfm?unitid=69 http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list...fm?unitid=5044
A cursory glance at their sites indicates no restriction against accepting their own undergrad students. As an honors college student, he would be well advised to try for a stellar freshman academic year and to nuture some prof/mentor relationships in order to increase his chances of acceptance for any of these REUs for summer 2007.
The sooner he gets involved in serious research as an UG, the better positioned for grad school he will be.
After next summer, who knows? There are myriad summer internship opportunities for physics students. He doesn't even have to stay in Minn. If you look at the REU site lists, many of the schools he applied to offer REUs. If he wants to broaden his UG experience, he can even apply to REUs at some LACs. He should also look into Caltech's SURF program.
His dept. advisors and the uni's career services office can help steer him toward opportunities at national labs and other gov't agencies. Does UMinn offer internships/coops with industry?
Has he looked into UMinn's study abroad or semester exchange programs with other schools? One of my kids was in a state uni's honors program; included in the program was full funding for self-designed independent research abroad had he wanted to pursue it.
The important thing is for him not to squander the terrific opportunity he has. Good luck to him!