<< In my opinion, a good logo requires clean text, a good color scheme, and overall balance of the logo. >>
True. However, he is doing this as a school project, and is going to present this in both digital format and on paper, IIRC. In that case, hell need something that won't look overly simple digitally, but easily printable. Also, since this is school, he isn't going t be needing this for making heaps of cash or using it for an official business...which means he can also go a little more impressive than overly simple.
IMHO.