If Carleton is of interest, then I’d also look at St. Olaf. It’s in the same town as Carleton, students can take classes at the other university, and I’ve been hearing fabulous reports about the collegial atmosphere there. Whereas Carleton is a reach for nearly all, St. Olaf has a more approachable admissions rate.
Appalachian State, though in the south, does not have the hot and muggy weather stereotypical of the southeast. Lots of biking and trails and other opportunities there.
Colorado State-greater breadth & depth in his areas of interest…but Colorado Mesa in Grand Junction may have better access to outdoors opportunities.
If he’s interested in a small school, Roanoke might be a possibility, and it has lots of trails and other options, nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park.
St. Lawrence in NY’s Adirondacks would also be another possibility.
And for another reach-for-all institution, have you considered Williams in MA?
I have a cousin who was a world-class endurance mountain bike racer and coach. She would have her high school team in Colorado do cross-country skiing and mountain hiking up and down in the winter. Plenty of that at Middlebury when your son can’t be on the bike.
I would also check out Montana State. My son, also a mountain bike racer, but who will not want to ride competitively in college, is really interested in the programs there. Bozeman is a real draw for an outdoor person.
I would recommend looking at Northeastern University. It is known for its experiential learning in all fields in its notorious coop program, tons of research opportunities, and travel learning as well. Very strong in all STEM with lots of minors and combined majors. They also have a really cool Three Seas program for marine sciences as well. They have various environmental science and studies programs. Even though it is an urban school, they have a great outdoors club etc. my younger D, CA surfer girl, even was involved in an informal (and now more established) surf club and surfed a decent number of times in all seasons. Not like surfing in Santa Cruz or CA coast, but she loved it. Both my D’s went there and had amazing coops and research opps (diff majors) that made them both super employable upon graduation and gave them great experiences to base their life choices on.
As a UCSB ENVS grad myself, I’d recommend looking at UCSB. great science and environmental programming.
Coming a bit late to this thread, but I would suggest that your son take a look at Williams. It’s very selective for sure, but they like applicants with a combination of academic accomplishment and a passion for outdoorsy activities, and who would consider Williams’ insular mountain village location a big positive.
Williams has a high level of participation in its Outing Club and nearby access to a wide range of activities, e.g.,climbing, hiking, camping, skiing and snowboarding and generally lots of opportunities to enjoy being active in a beautiful mountain environment.
Williams sciences, notably chemistry, biology and geosciences, are excellent across the board and there is a good deal of synergy between Environmental Studies and other sciences.
The Center For Environmental Studies “manages the Hopkins Memorial Forest, a 2600-acre natural area located 1.5 miles from campus, in which there are field-study sites and a laboratory.”
I would also note Williams’ generous funding for summer research projects. You can see a list of past projects on the Center for Environmental Studies site: