I agree with Fallenswordsman,,,, i even downloaded Maya PLE and XSI,,, now playing around with Maya myself,,,, ooops
So a educational edition is good to try out the software and see how well it takes to you... But i have to tell you the learning curve is steep... On Maya especially,,, hehe.
But Lightwave is still the best polygon modeller i have seen around..... think someone once said that
... i agree... and its user friendly too,,, no unwanted pictures for icons.... just plain direct to the point.