Since itīs students, you might try Council Travel and/or Sta Travel. They supposedly sell discounted RTW to students for less than the airlines.

They also regularly offer combinations that let you fly to Asia one-way via British Airways (and stop in London) and return direct transpacific, though this can often be expensive.

STA Travel in Germany sells super-cheap RTW tickets ex-Germany on BA and Qantas for $800-$1000 in the off-season (and the one time I bought from them they were willing to UPS the ticket to me in the US) - you could probably buy a $200-300 one-way student ticket to Europe and then get started on the rtw (and throw away the West Coast to Europe bit if you donīt want it). This will require you to travel via Australia or New Zealand though.

Good luck!
Yonatan