You should really plan a visit to the colleges that he appears to favor except for the lack of social prestige among his friends.
All of the schools mentioned…Alabama, Ole Miss, Miss State and LSU are beautiful schools that are very warm and friendly. Not to knock Rutgers ( I live in NJ), but it’s not what I would call a beautiful university. It is also very spread out and I have heard that you need a car because otherwise you need to bus everywhere.
Rutgers is also pretty expensive for a state school. Way more expensive than what I pay now, even when you add in airfare.
And keep in mind that kids don’t always pick schools the way adults would. My kids eliminated schools with mascots they didn’t like, school colors they didn’t like, lack of Chipotle next to campus, dorm that smelled like bacon…… and on and on. One child wanted to go to a school because they had a live tiger, and child was very certain that was worth the 80,000 price difference.
So I would take the whole “it’s not a good school because my friends think it’s not” out of the equation.