A C152 is cheap and forgiving. Also, when being a student you cannot fill an aircraft with passengers except your instructor, no more places needed than 2.
A long range 152 I learned to fly in carried fuel for over 5 hours, that's a lot more than 25lb.
However, when transferring to 172, Archer, SuperCub,... they all teached me a lot more on flying. The 152 was just too simple I guess.