Indeed, @ordinarylives and @ucbalumnus.
Med school will not be filled with inferior intellects.
Undergrad may be, but again, nothing’s preventing the kid from engaging with profs, who will definitely be very smart and knowledgeable (the academic talent in the US runs very deep).
Personally, I’d relish the opportunity to chill for a few years and pursue hobbies I won’t have time for later because med school (and internship and residency with the competition to get in to the most desirable ones) is no joke anywhere. I bet, if the kid goes down the medicine path, he’ll look back fondly on his undergrad days when he had so much free time to kill.