This leads me to recommend against Wake. Wake can be an unforgiving social environment, IMO of course. Combine that with relatively weaker engineering and would be the easiest one to drop.
There are plenty of non-partiers and non-Greek students at PSU, but the travel sounds onerous for you. Does he feel he would be able to navigate everything a large university requires? I agree with others who have said he would find his peeps.
NEU could be the happy medium…I expect like many others who spend their time away from campus first year that he would bond with some kids from that group. I would dive into the engineering classes that he would take in London and Oakland.
Is he making any visits to these three?