I graduated from high school in 2004, so my college experience was very recent...so I'll probably ramble a bit here (sorry )

I went to the University of Wisconsin; it was the perfect fit for me and I got a top-notch education and incredible research experience. My parents were worried at first that I was "selling myself short" or by not going to Princeton or Northwestern or something crazy like that (very few people in my family have gone to college so we were pretty clueless about the whole thing going in), but they came to love UW almost as much as I do.

Yes, it is often true that these bigger schools have some large classes (I had at least one that was 500+), but I also had classes (taught by full professors) that had 10 people in them. It's also not true that you never get to know your professors at big schools--99% of mine loved getting to know students. I even had professors ask me to babysit their kids. You just have to be willing to approach them to have a conversation.

I would add that he should try to visit several different schools, even ones that he thinks he might not like--he might be surprised what sort of things actually appeal to him in a school. I could tell very quickly from the time I rolled into town on my college visits (and again in the past couple of years, when I was deciding where to go to graduate school) whether or not a particular school was somewhere I could see myself. And I didn't always know that I liked the feel of a big state school--I had to visit a couple smaller schools and private schools before I figured that out for myself.

I believe that it doesn't matter so much how "good" a school is on paper--if you don't like the experience of living/studying/working there, it's not worth it. I'd be willing to say that's more important than going to a "good" school. I was accepted by graduate schools that were ranked "better" than the one that I chose (including the almighty Northwestern that my parents originally wanted me to go to for undergrad), but that doesn't mean that they were better for me.

That's about all I can think of right now. Best of luck to your nephew! I'd be happy to add my experiences about other things if he has more specific questions later on, but I fear this post is already far too long to add anything else.