Edit 1: @Greatpyrmom beat me to it!
Edit 2: And it’s on your list! Well! Excellent! Will share what I was writing anyway …
I’d be more than happy to write more on it, but I believe William & Mary meets all of your son’s “needs” in a campus and would overdeliver on his “wants”. My 2025 twins are there now (as out-of-state students) and are loving it. One of them went in planning on Ecology and Evolutionary Bio, but is possibly shifting to do more Environment/Sustainability, (though she also really enjoyed her geology and philosophy classes this fall, so who knows; they don’t have to declare until the end of sophomore year). She’s doing research in a lab as a first semester freshman, and is really enjoying her time at the school. (The other twin is also loving it, but his interests are less aligned with your son’s — history, pottery, social justice.) Her academic record looked similar to your son’s, with a very strong GPA (4.0 UW with high rigor) and SAT (1560), and several interesting ECs, but nothing that stood out EC-wise compared with HS classmates.
As I pointed out in an earlier post, W&M is in a unique position in that it has a very “academicky” student body — 1520 75th percentile SAT (34 ACT) — but with an admit rate around 30% (I think OOS is around 28%?), so it’s much more accessible than just about any other high-academics school out there. Even if your son applies to other schools as reaches, I would highly recommend he look at W&M as a target he might absolutely fall in love with.
Per the “in the south” aspect of it, my very-Bay-Area kids love it, and find it to be far more “mid-Atlantic” than “southern”.
As for other schools that resonated with our kids, the main one I’d recommend would be Carleton (as a high target), but I’m guessing that might already be on your list as well.
Okay, just bookending this by stepping back out of writer mode. I’m glad your son’s going to take a look at it! I’d be happy to answer any other questions you or he might have.