I say save till he gets what he wants.
My son is a Music/Business major from UF.
He wanted a Bach Stradivarius Trumpet , new, @ $3600.
The recession hit, we bought it for
$1800 brand new
Keep looking a great deal may be just around the corner
the thing is, what he wants is not offered in a kit
so the options are, getting a shell kit, adding the hardware, the cymbals he wants, and the pedal he wants
or buying a whole kit, and then replacing the cymbals as he goes, and adding the pedal
what will most likely happen is that we end up going with option 2 and he can switch out the cymbals as he makes more money