1. When could you depart? Summer is “peak season” for transatlantic airfares. If you can depart by the end of May, or Sept. 1, for example, you will sometimes find much cheaper fares.
2. How long do you need to stay?
3. Where in Sweden? It’s a big country. You don’t want to fly to Malmo if Lulea is what you really need, for example.

Post all 3 of these details and you’ll get much more useful guidance.

Well my friend lives in Alingsås, so I would be needing to arrive in Gothenburg.

I can’t leave before June 16 because this is my senior year of high school, and I’ll still be in school then.

2. How long will you need to stay?

From RIC you’d have 2 connections to get to GOT. From IAD (Dulles) you could do it with 1 connection.

Since you have to go in peak season, consolidators and student ticket sites are probably your best strategy. See our new user thread pinned @top of this forum. Still, sign up for fare alerts with AirfareWatchdog and Farecompare, but summer sales are rare and never as cheap as off-season flights.

Icelandair will be flying from Dulles this summer, in direct competition with SAS on some routes (such as Gothenburg); this could be to your advantage.

Icelandair allows a stopover in Iceland at no additional airfare—if you book it that way with them from the beginning. (If you decide to add a stopover later, you’ll have to pay the change fee + any additional airfare if it has gone up).