University of Arizona will give him a $35k annual scholarship for the UW 4.0, and their honors college is 30% School of Science majors and definitely on the rise after big investment. https://frankehonors.arizona.edu/
UofA is also one of only 62 schools in the AAU https://www.aau.edu/ so it really is the ideal ‘safety’ for your aspiring physicist (easy to get into), and yet possibly even a top choice once you dig in.