But even before the process of making popcorn in the microwave was automated came along, it was never difficult to make a batch any time you wanted one. By just putting the bag in the microwave folded out in accordance with the instructions, you just gave the popcorn three minutes or so on high. Its actually fun to watch the popcorn begin to erupt as the bag in the microwave begins to push out and you hear and smell the popcorn being made.
The benefits of cooking full meals using your microwave is that it saves both time and energy doing it this way. If you can cook a main dish in fifteen minutes what might have taken an hour and a half in a conventional oven, that not only makes meal preparation so much easier for you, it cuts down on the power needed to work your gas or electric oven and it reduces the amount of heat that is pumped into your home when you use a full sized oven. There is no reason you cannot prepare main dishes or delicious side dishes in your microwave oven that are just as good as the conventional style of cooking. You just have to find recipes that adapt the cooking process to the unique aspects of cooking with microwaves.
One appliance that will help your freshman make that transition to college would be a very small or "mini" microwave oven. There are models of microwaves that are drastically smaller than the version you use in your kitchen at home. These miniaturized appliances are made for situations just like this where even though the living space is small, having a microwave would do a lot to help that college student cope with daily life in school.
If you do well with your internet research, you may also be able to find diagnostic guides to help you figure out what is wrong with your microwave. The simple complaint that "it won't go" is not enough to go on. You cannot just start swapping parts out hoping you will get lucky and find the right one to fix the problem. You could easily replace the entire guts of the machine only to find out that all you needed was a new wall plug that you could have gotten at the local hardware store for three dollars. So look for the equivalent of a "microwave repair for dummies" guide to help you do some intelligent diagnosis of the problem you have so you can also figure out which part to buy to get the repair done.
Over Range Microwave
In addition to the cabinetry, look closely at the power and venting needs of a microwave oven. If you simply adapt an existing cabinet that is over the range, there may not be an outlet in the wall at the back of that cabinet to plug the microwave into. Also, microwave ovens have fans that vent fumes and smoke from the interior of the microwave to the open air. You must accommodate those fans to safely install your microwave over the stove.