filtherton

Depending on what they're attempting to teach, a Holga might not be the right choice. If they're trying to teach technical principles, well, the Holga I had was pretty much limited to one aperture and one shutter speed and each setting was approximate-- there might be some assignments you can't do. I'd ask the instructor if they have any specific recommendations.

I'm not sure about where you live, but there are a couple of mom and pop camera shops in my area that sell used cameras. If you have any of those in your area you should be able to get whatever you need within your budget in 35mm format.

It's been a while since I thought about buying film camera of any format, but I remember when I was interested in a medium format/120 camera they were all $1000+ for just the camera body. This was back before digital cameras were so easy and great, so it's fairly likely that my advice is way outdated.