[MRM]

He won't be happy as an enlisted man in the Navy. He will be much older than the others in his training classes and his peers will not be the ambitious well educated young people with bright futures he is used to being part of. He will be more well educated than his commanding officers and will be stuck in a regimented life where his promotional opportunities are limited by time in service, no matter how well he excels, and then only if he excels with the required time in service. And once he's in, he's in until his enlistment is up whether he likes it or not. With no guarantees from the Navy about anything other than they keep him until his enlistment is up.

Instead, I strongly suggest he join the reserves now and do his basic next summer between his junior and senior year. He could join ROTC and do the officer equivalent as well, and I don't think he would have a commitment at that point unless he has a scholarship. Either way, he can decide then whether he still thinks he would be happy in active duty and in what capacity withut placing himself in a position he can't get out of.