Seeking recommendations.
 

Any vintage bicycle recommendations which are great for students? Or anyone for that matter.

Frankly, if I were back in school today, I'd pick a hard tailed mountain bike, modern or vintage.
Not usually a bike theif's first choice to steal, would be able to take rough roads and jump curbs around a campus and would be much more comfortable ride, especially after a long day and/or night of studies.....
You can either just have a vintage bike for weekend rides when you do not have to leave and lock it up to a public bike rack, or just wait to get your vintage dream bike after you graduate fromcollege.....

I totally agree with [MENTION=426321]Chombi1[/MENTION]. I picked up a Trek 930 non-shock-equipped mountain bike in immaculate condition for my wife for about $100. It's a beautiful machine and there are many more out there that go for a song. Any of the Trek 9xx series bikes are great, as are many other similar bikes from many makers.

Whatever is cheap, fits you, rides nice, and isn't TOO old or TOO heavy. If you go for a mountain bike I'd ditch the knobby tires. Once I did that on my mountain bike it was like a revelation. I don't ride on mountains! Even when I do a fire road now I use basic Panaracer Paselas and it's all roses and sunshine.

A price range, your location, and some examples of what you're looking at on Craigslist posted here would allow people to really let you know what's a good buy and what you should definitely avoid.

Personally, I'd go for something with 27" or size 700 tires, I just like the way road bike ride. They make me want to ride more. They may be more theft worthy, but anything worth having is worth being stolen. Get a good u-lock, supplemental looped cable, learn the best way to lock a bike up and pick locations that are visible and well lit. Don't ever store a bike overnight outside, it's just too easy to be messed with no matter what it is.

+1 ^

Also, your height

No need to overlook bikes with 26" tires though. It really depends on where you'll be riding. If I harken back to my college days, maneuvering campus obstacles was top priority for me and a 26" tire is a better setup for this IMO. I actually rode my BMX bike on campus for maximum weaving, hopping, dodging, etc.

Now if you have a fair amount of distance to get to campus, then I'm all in on getting a bike with bigger rims.

Agree with the rigid mtb suggestion. They are plentiful, durable and cheap. Buy some decent slicks and a lock and you're set.

I'm going to suggest something with an upright seating position that can haul lots of stuff especially in the California colleges. I'd worry more about traffic, pedestrians, and bad drivers then the ability to hop a curb. 10 years of bike commuting in Davis taught me that.

Schools , College, are a bike thieves favorite hunting ground.

Ugly bikes with heavy locks may be there when time comes to ride home.

Nothing has changed since my undergrad years at UCLA (1968-1972). We used to suggest parking next to a better-looking bike with a flimsier locking system, and we noted that the lighter the bike, the heavier the security chain it merited. :( Around the UCSD campus this year I have observed several bikes with missing wheels, handlebars(!), saddles, etc. -- a good U-lock can only do so much.

My favorite commuters in the pre-ATB era were an Armstrong 3-speed with drop bars, 26" tires, and a 14-16-18-20 cog cluster and my first Capo Modell Campagnolo, with 27x1-1/4" tires. Both had Pletscher mousetrap racks and ugly/blotchy dull Rustoleum paint jobs. I even painted "JUNK" on the fork blades and downtube of the Armstrong, where one might see a proper brand name. :)

I started to get paranoid about bicycle theft when I bought the Nishiki Competition in 1971, but fortunately my girlfriend (now wife) lived across the street from campus at the YWCA, where they allowed residents to park their bikes indoors. Years later I lost two bicycles to theft on two unrelated occasions, but neither was valuable.

I live in the Boston area where there's something like 250,000 college students. Not all are riding bikes, but for those who do, they're generally on just about everything you can imagine though old mountain bikes do seem to dominate. In the last couple of years, I've seen a lot of entry level Trek road bikes with disc brakes locked at the bike rack. So it really comes down to if you want to carry stuff on your bike (and thus will need provisions for racks and bags), how far you have to go, how fast you have to go, what the weather conditions are like where you live, if you'll be riding in the dark, etc. Hard to make any recommendations without knowing more about the OP's context.