That reminded me of my son and I visiting the memorial to students who served that sits outside the chapel at Duke University. We spent a lot of time out there, looking at the names, the various wars, the years, and talking about it all.
That’s a good idea about mandating a positive statement about every visit.
Can you look at Small State Colleges for your state?
My DD2 hated Rutgers, our state flagship. But she loved and attended The College of New Jersey which is also a state school, but only 5000 undergraduates.
I would tell him that his budged is $25K all in, that you ran the NPC at Princeton and it shows X (if X is < 25K then he can apply, but if it isn’t then it is up to him) and for him to spend more time investigating good value schools in his state (or others) that can meet the budget.
We are PA - West Chester is about the best of the smalls and it’ll be his safety, I’m guessing. It’d still be $25k though, so a safety I’d rather not use. I mean, if I have to spend $25k someplace, I’d much rather spend it at a more selective school 
Have him look at this program within the honors college at Pitt - great pre-law major: https://www.honorscollege.pitt.edu/politics-philosophy
Arizona Honors has a similar major, even more specifically law-oriented: https://moralscience.arizona.edu/ba-philosophy-politics-economics-and-law
URichmond has PPEL as well. Denison also has a strong PPE major and might be a good merit target.
If he’s looking for a big change of scene, would Deep Springs appeal? It’s a truly unique two-year experience and fully subsidized, and he could transfer to a PA public as a junior.
Agree with others that merit at private schools can often be up to 1/2 tuition, which brings the typical costs to the $40k range, depending on how pricey room and board is etc. But getting much below that requires more than 1/2 tuition, and that becomes much more difficult to get. Rhodes in Memphis may be worth a look, Conn Coll now gives merit but I’m not familiar with the competitiveness, Trinity in CT also does now as well, and Hartford location in state capital great for someone interested in politics and internships. I second the Richmond and Denison suggestions.
Updating, as we are now a year from my original post.
S23 ended up with a 3.8 GPA UW at the end of last year; all As and a B+. He didn’t do particularly well on the 10th grade PSAT and I’m not expecting NMF-level improvement. He is taking 4 honors classes and 2 APs this year and already sweating pre-calc. Doing the musical and mock trial.
We have toured Temple and St. Joe’s in Philly and Pitt. Planning a March sweep of Richmond, Emory, Oglethorpe, Tulane, Loyola NO and FSU.
He was really impressed with the vibe at Temple and Pitt, though the tours were pretty mediocre and fleeting. He still loves Princeton and also has U. of Melbourne (Australia) as a dream school, because we are dual nationals and he has been told by the US admissions rep that he would qualify for domestic rates and so it’d be affordable.
Over the summer he ended up with a job in a theater/event space instead of anything law-related, which was great because needs money as he’s now a licensed driver and car-crazy.
So I will report back after the March tours, but honestly, I think he’s headed in-state to Temple or Pitt, unless something huge changes. And that’s fine by me.
Maybe look at schools that have an exchange program with U of Melbourne. Give him a chance to study abroad for a year. Penn State is one of the programs