Hey, cool; something I can sort of answer. Here comes a super long post.
I am in my third year at Ohio Wesleyan now. I’m not very good at telling about the school, but I think it’s quite nice and I certainly haven’t been unhappy. I can’t say much about a physics major (I am a geography major). As far as I know Physics is a pretty small department, but I’d imagine there must be some pretty good facilities since a brand new science building is now basically complete. I am a history minor, so I do know a bit about that. I think there are a fair number of history courses available for someone like me (or your son, it sounds like) to just take ones that are interesting. The minor only requires 5 courses.
As for the specific questions:
I wouldn’t say it’s a commie school; like most colleges I suppose the majority of students are somewhat left of center, but there’s nothing extreme and I seriously doubt anyone would have much trouble fitting in.
The town it is in (Delaware) might be considered a “nice small town” by someone from the NYC area, but on the other hand you might see it as some place with nothing to do. The campus is very close to downtown, which I think looks nice adn has a few shops and restaurants but is not really a popular place among the students. We are maybe 20 or 30 minutes north of Columbus, so there is access to bigger and better things, but not really without a car, which, by the way, you must be a junior or senior to park on campus. Otherwise if you have a car you’d have to park on the streets, at least overnight. Shopping, etc. can be found in the northern 'burbs of Columbus, which are rapidly moving closer to us. Delaware County is the fastest growing in the state, and while most of the growth is occuring south of the town, the town itself is slowly starting to look more like a suburb than a small town, at least away from the center.
We’re not a bunch of pot heads, though of course there are bound to be some. You mentioned that your son never drinks, smokes, etc.- there is one dorm here (or maybe more) that is “substance-free,” which I guess means that no alcohol or anything is allowed in the rooms, even for those of age.
I think we have our fair share of smart students, at least compared to big public schools. (Ohio State, by the way, can basically be reached by heading south without making a single turn.) Of course, not everyone is a genius; there are plently of average students as well.
I wouldn’t say the school is anti-jock. A lot of people are involved in sports, but it’s not a big jock school either; sports and athletes may get some attention, but I don’t think it’s much of a big deal here. Academics get more attention.
I can’t personally tell of any life-changing teachers. They’re good, but I haven’t had any professors (outside of my major) that I’m likely to remember when I’m 50 years old.
Not really a country club, either, I suppose. It’s hard for me to speak on because I haven’t really been challenged to the extreme, but that’s the way I’ve always been. Based on the testimony of others, though, I’d say you can’t get through here just by relaxing and having fun all the time.
The dorms are pretty nice, at least with respect to bathrooms. In most of the dorms, each room (usually 4 people, but there are also singles and doubles) has its own bathroom, which is cleaned once a week, at least in my dorm. There are two dorms that have the standard double rooms with community bathrooms. A small number of upperclassmen live off campus, but you must apply to do that and not everyone is permitted. Otherwise students must live on campus all four years. None of the dorms are particularly new and sparkling, but they’re not falling apart as far as I know. There tends to be some trouble with the internet in the dorms more frequently than we would like, but they’re slowly making things better. Most of the time the connection works and gets a pretty good speed, so your son wouldn’t have much trouble playing lots of Warcraft. If you need to know: Stuy and Smith East are the noisy/party dorms, Welch (where I live) is the honors dorm and is fairly quiet so we nerds can study or whatever we do, Smith West is the substance-free one I mentioned before (don’t really know about how noisy, etc. it is), Thomson and Bashford are the ones with the community bathrooms, and Hayes is for women only. There are also small living units (SLU’s), which are basically houses in which students with some sort of similar interest live. For example, there is the Modern Foreign Language House, the International House, etc. I don’t really have any experience with those, or with anything involving life in a fraternity.
Miscellaneous: A lot of options for food, though the main food place gets crowded at lunch anyway, seemingly handling more students than actually go to this school. Food itself is usually not bad, but nothing spectacular. Drinking is of course a popular pastime, but one can get along just fine (as I have) without drinking. I’m sure you’ve heard all the facts and figurues, but I’ll mention anyway that there are a fair number of foreign students, many of them from India or Pakistan. There are also people from many other places of course (apparently a lot of Bulgarians for some reason). My roommate is from Nepal, for instance.
I can’t think of much more to say off the top of my head. This is already the longest post I’ve ever written. But if there’s anything else you might like to know, I’d be happy to try to answer it!
By the way, I work in the Admission Office a couple days a week. Maybe I have the privilege of folding whatever “Congratulations!” letter went to your son.