I will always recommend the all male dorm in Birch/Welch/Roberts. From my friends who lived on Co-Ed floors, they said it was like a **** measuring contest to try and impress the girls, especially in the beginning. Which is fine if you're into that. In the all male dorm, we just became bros (and not the frat kind). We have 3 houses all next to each other now and we all still hang out everyday. We're basically gonna be old college friends forever now. We still hung out with girls just like the Co-Ed floors because the all-female dorm is right there. But we hung out with them without having to drag the drama back to our dorm. It was cleaner than every Co-Ed dorm I stepped foot in, albeit much older than Maple, Willow, and Larch.
Learning Communities are alright. I never lived on one but I can see where they can help a lot. My floor had 32 people on it. 22 Engineering Freshman, 6 Business Freshman, and 4 Engineering Sophomores. Everyone had classes with each other which just helped a ton with the whole making friends thing.
Whatever he chooses, because every time a thread like this is made it blows up, just tell him to keep his door open, smile, be social, and lay off the video games/tv until winter and friends have been made. Also, make sure he doesn't come home until Thanksgiving Break. The most memories are made on the weekends and he shouldn't miss any.