Just an anecdote: My son dropped out of a private LAC & worked a few years before returning to a public directional, where there was a shift in major, so as a junior transfer he had to take some intro level courses for his major. He happened to be taking the same basic course there as his younger sister was taking at the same time at an Ivy-affiliated LAC. They compared notes. My son voiced a complaint that while his sister was expected to read original source material for her class–something he would also knew he would have experienced at his first LAC as well – at his university the class was taught from a single textbook that wasn’t all that much more sophisticated or difficult than a high school textbook. At the time, I made one comment: “You’ve got the internet. What’s stopping you from reading all that stuff on your own?” (Basic answer was something along the lines that it was a lot easier to grip than to actually take initiative and do the work).
So fast forward a little bit: during my son’s spring semester he saw a bulletin about applying for a competitive & prestigious internship through his department, that would only be given to a single student. It was out of his comfort zone, but he went ahead & filled out the form, wrote an essay, lined up the LOR’s he needed. He ended up being the one student from his school who was selected, and spent his fall semester away from campus, at his school’s expense, pursuing that opportunity. That included a lot of college credit toward his major, but when he got back, he still needed to fill in the gaps for his degree with some intro-level course work. But he successfully petitioned for a waiver of the intro coursework along with a substitution of the more advanced coursework – basically citing his internship experience and pointing out that he would be able to bring more of benefit to the other students in the advanced-level seminars given his experience.
So part of the process, over time, is just one of figuring out how and where to stretch, and how to move beyond and outside the boundaries of the path the school has laid out Some of it is maturity, and some of it is the acquired experience after a person has spent more time at their school, and some of it is initiative.
I don’t know what the OP’s school is or what opportunities may or may not exist for him… but I do think that my answer to my son when he griped (“what’s stopping you?”) was the right one. Being smarter than all of one’s peers (if true)-- provides a competitive advantage, and a large university environment is full of opportunities --but they are not always well-publicized or easy to find. But if there is a med school there, then surely there must be faculty members doing research … so surely also opportunities to assist in that?
Anyway, if the OP’s son is truly unhappy with his choice, then transfer is a valid option to consider. But the college experience does evolve over time. I’m wondering if the OP’s son might also be questioning whether medical school is or should be in his future? If his career goals are shifting, then I can see him feeling stuck in a program he wouldn’t have selected if he could do it all over again.