I'm having a lot of fun learning Blender. But have started watching tutorials on Maya and 3ds Max. I noticed that in the academic version of Maya, that both Maya and 3ds Max are bundled together.

I know education versions of the software are only good for learning purposes only, but I consider myself a student, only I'm not enrolled with any School. Since I'm not enrolled, I can't buy the academic versions (one site i looked at required faxed or email credentials to complete an order) Would it be wrong to have a school teacher friend of mine purchase it for me? I don't see myself creating anything other then stuff that could possibly be used on a demo reel (although realistically that could be months, if not years away). Or use in shorts, that may or may not be submitted to festivals.

I'm hoping to have the money and time to enroll in fxphd's January semester, and I'd like to take their beginning Maya class. I know I'll be able to use their licenses to activate the demo software. But once that semester is over, I don't think Im allowed to continue to use their license. I'm thinking picking up the a academic version isn't a horrible idea.

Any thoughts?

I suggest you use Blender to build your showreel. Join fxphd and use the license you get to add to your reel.

If you are good at 3D (you didn't mention which aspect of 3D CGI you want to specialize in), then it should be tough to judge looking at your reel which shots were from Blender and which were from Maya.