As for the camera itself it's mostly manual with an aperture-priority auto exposure mode. Basically you pick the f-stop and it'll set the shutter speed. It does have some other nice features too:

Eyepiece shutter - closes off the viewfinder so stray light coming in thru it doesn't get to the meter and mess up your exposure reading if you're shooting on a tripod and yer face isn't right up against the camera to block out the light.

Depth of field preview - stops down the lens to the aperture you've set so you can see what the depth of field looks like

Multiple exposure lever - pretty self explanatory, lets you take multiple exposures on one frame.

Exposure compensation - lets you adjust the exposure compared to what the light meter reads; useful for bracketing exposures which you'll learn about in class

I'd say overall it's a pretty solid choice. The only thing it doesn't have that could be potentially useful is a way to lock the mirror up. Sometimes if you're taking longer exposures on a tripod, vibrations from the mirror can blur the picture even though the camera itself is totally stationary. It'd be nice to have but it's not totally essential. Usually the shutter speed this problem happens at most frequently is around the 1/15 second range but it varies by camera. If you're using a tripod and the subject ain't moving, try and just go for a longer shutter speed which will be less affected by mirror vibrations. That is unless, you need that 1/15 shutter speed to get a particular aperture. Mostly though, it's avoidable.

Whether or not I'd consider this a good buy depends on what lenses you got. So...what kind of lenses did you get?

Hopefully there's a 50mm in the set. That's what you should start out with before you start messing around with telephotos or wide angles.

Oh, and I'm not sure if you have a manual for the camera, but if not, this should help: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/xr-2s/xr-2s.htm