I'll agree (x4?) with what's been said above, but also throw in that I don't think you want anything for a college kid that requires attention. Our trucks LOVE to drink oil, so most responsible owners end up checking their oil at each fill-up or at least once every two weeks. I don't know about others here, but I can tell you when I was in college preventative vehicle maintenance was the LAST thing on my mind. And btw I also had a Jeep Cherokee in college, an '84 model with the carbureted 2.8 V6, and it was an absolute POS. Broke constantly... the alternator went bad so I had it replaced, the new alternator overcharged the battery and (not joking here) caused the battery to explode under the hood, bowing the hood up and back down again by a good 3 inches. Before that the throttle got stuck wide open, so I was literally at 6000 RPM in park. The final straw was when the intake gasket failed and allowed water into the engine... a nice puff of white smoke and that was it. Never happier to see a vehicle go than I was with that one.
I think Tom's got a good point there, take a hard look at Subaru's, maybe even a WRX (insert WormGod's recommendation here) since they have AWD capability with good space for people and stuff.
Lol...