Stanford is a reach and seems to be his first choice.
Look at this website: https://ctcl.org/category/college-profiles/ Reed is one of the Colleges that Change Lives.
For West coast I would include Lewis and Clark, University of Puget Sound, Pitzer, Whitman- if the net price calculators indicate affordability or if merit aid is possible.
CSU’s and UC’s.
Look into Questbridge.
He has plenty of EC’s in that list, including work, which colleges are honoring these days. Low income status makes it hard to fully pursue activities outside of school and the need to work plays a role as well. Colleges understand that. Helping family is also honored. The guidance counselor can explain.
Is the student going to do the financial aid applications? Usually a parent does them…If low income, there is an option not to do the part on assets so doing a FAFSA can be quick. I don’t remember doing the FAFSA or CSS Profile until applications were in. I think I did them in January.
It is not too late to do applications but to avoid undue stress he needs to have a focused list. People stress about essays but colleges know there is a lot of coaching and their importance has gone down as a result. I think the main thing is to avoid a bad essay: neutral can be okay! No stress in other words.
Clearly he will need financial aid. Stanford of course is excellent in that regard but look into some of the other privates in addition to publics. Good luck1