I think what OP has to decide is do they want to be home or near family or not. If they do, then they need realistic schools as well to apply to.
Don’t know the school but I’ll guess Scripps which few in the real world will know - but grad schools will.
Don’t know the major but given it’s a HWC and LAC, I’m gonna guess whether they go to Elon, UNC, or NC State or even ECU or like schools around Chicago isn’t going to matter long run.
If the student is truly miserable, they’ll widen the search to include ensured admits. They can hope for ‘prestige’ but will be protected no matter.
If they’re only seeking the elite of the elite, I think they would be fooling themself with the homesickness story. They might realize that few know their school (common with many LACs and top universities like Rice, Emory, WashU) and it might be the usual, I did great in hs and deserve more.
OP has to decide what it really is…IMHO