Looks as though I can get a pretty significant discount on Logic Studio through the University software department. Also, from what I've seen and read about ProTools LE, it's a very stripped down version and not really flexible with anything other than basic 2 channel mixing. Logic oth can do 7.1 mixdown out of the box, has lots of production tools and will work with any hardware I want to use. Think I'll go this route with the Presonus hardware and if Pro Tools comes along in the future we'll see if it works... Thanks for all the help!
Digidesign are you reading this??? You should be
