As much as I think the Prius is a wonderful car and almost purchased one I'd have to say "pass". Since you're a student you probably don't have a lot of money left over for expensive repairs. I'm not saying there will be problems, but with the hybrid system you can't just go to a used autoparts store to buy the components, and 175,000 miles is a lot of miles for any car.

You could probably purchase a decent economy car with much fewer miles for half that price. True, it won't get the Prius's mileage, but you can buy a lot of gas and repairs for the $3000 - $4000 difference in price.