<p>OP, math nerds come in many levels - he may be way above his peers in HS and love the math there, but he and you need to find out if he’s equally attracted to math at the level you’ll find in the colleges you’re listing, or are there math-related fields he would enjoy more. In HS, for example, did he hang out a lot on the AoPS [Art</a> of Problem Solving](<a href=“http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/]Art”>http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/) site, did he take the AMCs and do well and go on to AIME and beyond; did he get on an ARML team, look at PROMYS, and go over the problems in Putnam, etc. The math kids at the top tier colleges probably have done many of these.</p>
<p>What I’m getting at is that it’s quite possible a math nerd in a school full of diverse kids may think he wants to do math, but may actually fancy engineering more than math in college, because s/he didn’t have that option in HS and likes it better when exposed to it. So I would suggest you don’t rule out engineering schools unless you are certain that he wishes to do pure math/science.</p>
<p>As an example, my S was quite precocious in math - 800 math SAT by 7th grade, and did a lot of math contests and projects, but ultimately comp sci attracted him more and he went to Carnegie Mellon which he absolutely enjoys. Towards the latter part of his freshman year, acquired an interest in engineering and signed up for a dual major. Of course he does a lot of math, but a major in math has never been on his radar after he went to college.</p>