Actually there are many many cameras with the features you're looking for. A lot are going for around $200-300. If your friend is taking a class and really want to get full use of the camera, I would put priority on easy to use menus. Yes, image quality and battery life and all that is important, but around digicam levels, its a very close race between the top models...except for user interface.
I'm partial to Nikon's UI, a lot of my friends like Canon's UI. Download a few manuals and show see which is the easiest to learn/use. If she has to go through 3 submenus to change aperature or metering, she's going to hate the camera and hate photography (or leave it on P/auto mode forever).
So, try
www.dpreview.com and use the buying guide to search out cameras with the following minimum requirements:
1. Aperature prioity
2. Shutter priority
3. Center/spot metering in addition to the matrix/multizone whatever metering (spot metering is great for learning)
4. Manual focus option (what's the point of aperature priority if you can't choose your focus)
5. At least +/- 2EV exposure compensation (will definitly be in the classwork)
6. Adjustable white balance (to learn about color temperatures)
7. Compact size, <$400 price, 4 or 5 Mega pixels, etc.
Truthfully I haven't seen a compact/subcompact with a UI that I like. You'll definitly have to go through menus and that takes times, eats batteries and is just plain not fun navigating menus while the composition you saw goes away.
Like I said, I'm partial to Nikon UI. So, take a look at the Coolpix 5400. Aperature, speed and white balance are semi directly accessible on a wheel. EV comp has it own button. Metering is 2 menus away. Manual focus is 3 menus. The camera is a little bit bulky though.
Cannon S80/70/60/50 are more compact but again, more menus. As XxATOLxX mentioned, the Canon G6 is a great camera, and it has almost all direct button/wheel access to the features; as bulky as the Coolpix though. Download some manuals and see which she prefers.
