It will be a bit bigger, but I think that for a new scout and inexperienced outdoors person a synthetic bag is safer. It will retain some warming capability when wet, and my scouts tend to get their stuff wet due to not paying attention to environmental factors and not thinking ahead. You can find some that pack fairly small and are fairly light, though not like a down bag. I also live in a wet climate, so it is more important for me.

Kelty, Eureka, and North Face have been making less expensive synthetic bags that are pretty good. I use military surplus Extended Cold Weather Sleeping Systems (ECWSS) for most of mine. You can get them for less than $100 here and it is very flexible. It does not pack small when you carry the complete system though. In North Carolina we rarely have to do that.