lol jk, but if your dad's paying for it I personally love to drive the E90 3 series, something like a 328i will fit your budget, my dad had an x3 with a very similar but more powerful engine and it was very reliable. Also pretty good on gas, I imagine the 328i with RWD can do 11-12L/100km easily as the much heavier and more powerful/awd X3 did around 13.5L/100km.
I am going to school 4 days a week and mix between transit/driving, personally gas isn't much of a concern, how much driving do you plan on doing every week? I only use $20-25 tops every week which is pretty easy to budget for. If your dad is covering the insurance/maintenance I wouldn't be concerned about gas money unless you're burning through a tank of gas/week