MIT is hard for just about everyone. Will your son cope will depend on his personality. He must be open to looking and asking for help and advice when he needs it. There are many places to get this help from. One great thing about MIT is that 1st semester freshman year there are no grades, just pass or no credit and second semester has A, B, C, or no credit. Even so, my daughter had a very hard time acclimating to the work load that 1st year. She ended up dropping one class each semester, but by by her junior year, after learning a lot of new study skills, she got straight A’s. The question is if your son can handle seeing very low grades, probably for the first time in his life and still keep his mental health in check.
It actually took my daughter an extra semester to graduate because of those early dropped classes. All in all, she loved MIT and looks back at it with very fond memories.