If you can afford between $450-$500 I personally prefer anything in the 9mm Glock series. Especially the full size model 17. Shoots soft, wickedly accurate, ultra-reliable, amazingly durable, and easy to field strip and clean. The trigger pull is consistent and easy to get used to. The Glocks in .40, .357, 10mm, and .45 are fine weapons too, they're just not for me.
If you can't afford that much money right now, I really like the Taurus PT92 9mm and Ruger 9mm's for the "bargain" category. I've personally found these guns to be accurate and very reliable for the price, any price for that matter! You can usually find these pistols for around $350.
If you can, try to find a range near you that rents pistols and try as many as you can. In the end, only you can decide which pistol works for you.