After enlisting in my school’s 3D graphics program I am… switching to Maya (gasp). It’s been great Blender.
You don’t need to give up on it.
Blender’s UV tools are still better, IMO.
So use it for unwrapping. 
i switched from c4d to blender:evilgrin:
Maya is a great piece of 3D software. Good luck with the education.
PS. Work hard on your education. I hope you’ll work/study 8 hours a day. Don’t be a slacker. Or else you won’t find a job when you finish. Like me.
I bet you will still use Blender for a few things, like sculpting or UV mapping. Buying Zbrush is pricey.
Congratulations and good luck! No matter what other software you find yourself using in the years to come you will always have Blender to thank for getting you started.
Have fun learning Maya 
it’s a great tool.
linkseyi, if you have the occasion to work/learn with Maya and Blender side by side give us the dirt!
Just so we can hear if there is stuff you got used to in Maya that you think would be usefull in Blender, or vice versa, I know there’s some autodesk people lurking here… they cannot hide from me!
We all love to make and see cool picturez!
Can you answer a few questions for me, as I’m currently working to have Blender adopted by schools for intro to 3D and animation courses?
What does your school do for practice? Do they provide you with a personal copy of Maya to use at home? Do you have to do your work in the school’s computer labs? How do they expect you to follow up with your skills after the program in regards to still using the software? And finally, you are attending an art or design school that specifically has a “professional” track for 3D animation?
That’s been one of my “selling” points so far: that students can use Blender at home and after they are out of the program, so I’m curious how schools that use commercial programs deal with this.
They can with Autodesk products as well, just not for commercial purposes. Any student can download an educational version of Autodesk software for free these days and you’re free to continue to use it after you finish a course.
The upside with Blender is of course the commercial aspect where you can freelance and what not when you’re done.
Schools may be dealers.
I am not sure that loosing their commissions is a good “selling” point.
Edit: sorry for my english mistakes.
Schools don’t resell licenses. They sell software on a physical DVD package.
Schools may be resellers.
But I heard that with copyrights you can’t go around reselling licensed stuff, not even books!
I use Maya at school, but I haven’t given up Blender. In fact, many times it’s easier for me to render out a sequence in Blender to bring into After Effects than it is to render in Maya. It’s also not uncommon for me to export models from Maya to Blender to render out for showcasing purposes.
Harkyman, Autodesk now provides 3-year student licenses of Maya for educational purposes for free, so it makes it really easy to learn the program.
only 9 posts? I suspect you won’t be missed much…
Actually Autodesk provides licenses for pretty much everything for students, Maya, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, 3ds Max, Softimage, AutoCad, Impression, Inventor, Map 3D, Alias Automotive, Sketchbook…
Pretty much their whole portfolio.
@linkseyi: Learning the least amount of 3D suites possible, in your case 1 isn´t really a smart move for the future. I´d learn as many as possible and use the best features from each and not ditch one for the other.
all monopolies ensure their further dominion by first freely distributing their stuff to kids in a tender age…
You have to think that Blender is responsible for this to a large degree (and the demise of the middle-market “pro-sumer” 3D players). There is no way that the commercial apps would have considered doing this if there was no freely available alternative. We know this because… they didn’t. For years, they were aware of the massive pirating that went on because people who were just learning couldn’t afford it, and they turned a blind eye because it meant more users someday later. I wonder how closely they monitored the pirate stats, and if they had started to drop off…
you have a point there: open-source is more dangerous than pirating, that’s the message they’re sending…
But I heard that with copyrights you can’t go around reselling licensed stuff, not even books!
With software licensing, that is indeed possible. It is, however, a part of the First Sale Doctrine that one can sell the hard-copy of a copyrighted work if it was originally purchased. With software you have to install, it is legal to sell the CD but one cannot install it due the EULA. With books, music CD’s, etc you cannot be prevented from selling them nor their use as there is no need to accept a license of any form.
So, for books, no-one can prevent the sale of the physical item, just prevent you from photocopying it or similar (outside fair use). Unless you sign a contract prior to purchase (such as an NDA) which some material I have been privy to in my career DID require… but not 3D textbooks & manuals 
you have a point there: open-source is more dangerous than pirating, that’s the message they’re sending…
Well it is more dangerous. See, pirated software in the home is too expensive to worry about policiing and they probably would never have got the sale anyway. Pirating at the studio has a business they can target and the studio would have bought the software if they didn’t pirate it (they need it after all). Policing the businesses has positive effects on their bottom line.
On the other hand, open-source if used at home can be brought into the studio as well without any positive effects on the bottom line. In fact, the more studios that allow the open-source software to be used - the faster the spread to others will get (look at the sharp take-off of Linux in the enterprise after many, many years of being ignored completely). Like Apple & Microsoft, they are trying to nip it in the bud by having students learn their software.
Forgive this question from a noob, but how difficult is it to switch back and forth between programs? I mean Blender and Maya, of course.
I am no expert in Maya but I believe switching from Maya to Blender will be quite easy, the other way around though… Well it’s like comparing kinder-garden maths with rocket science 