One warning about mock trial–my kid did it in college too. Unless things have changed…it’s been a while, and I admit that–the national organization limits mock trial membership to something like 32 people per college. That usually means no more than 10 new members are selected each year. So…at some schools…especially those which have no other forensic activity…it can be very difficult to make the team.
Please understand that I’m not trying to discourage anyone. I am ONLY saying that if forensics are of interest, he needs to find out what exists, how competitive it is to join, whether practices and participation in tournaments is mandatory, whether the activity is funded by the college,whether you are required to take a course to participate, etc. There is a LOT of variation among colleges and if forensics is of interest, it pays to investigate in advance.
For example, it looks as if Model UN is the only vaguely “forensic” activity at Knox College. Bates, on the other hand, has an open enrollment debate team that competes in APDA (parliamentary debate). So, if he got into both and both were otherwise equal, that might matter.
I think it pays to investigate any EC of interest. Some kids, for example, love the behind the scenes theatre stuff–lighting booth, set design, etc. At some schools ONLY theatre majors can do this stuff. At one, kids are hired through work study to do it. So, if you want to continue doing that sort of thing in college, find out if you can.