There's a group of colleges out in California called the Claremont Colleges. There are 5 of them and they are often called the Ivy League of the west coast. They aren't really well known around here, but they are excellent schools. My sister was 2nd in her HS graduating class and was looking for a really good liberal arts school. She ended up deciding to go to Pomona College right outside of L.A. and loved it. It's a small school with a very low faculty to student ratio. The campus is nice and it's warm year yound. My sister didn't qualify for financial aid but she got money to go there because they were looking to get diversity and didn't have many students from the northeast.
The other schools in that group are Havey Mudd, Pitzer, Claremont McKenna and Scripps.
Depending on if he wants to be far from home or not, it may be worth checking out.
http://www.claremont.edu/