JPG or RAW?

Okay, so I'm going to attempt to explain what I have been told about shooting your pictures in RAW instead of JPG.  I asked about RAW in my Photography class and this is what he said: 

RAW is uncompressed thus giving you more flexibility.  When you shoot in JPG format, and you have an (let's say) 8 mp camera, you are only getting like 3-4 mp of information from that picture because it is compressed.  With RAW, you are getting all 8 mp of information giving you more to work with when you are editing.  This is important because every time you save a photo, you take a little bit of information away.  I know this is hard to understand and I can't say I understand it COMPLETELY, but I have switched to RAW and have been a lot more comfortable with taking pictures since.  I feel like I can edit my pictures more if needed and not feel like I'm taking anything away.  One thing to keep in mind is that with RAW, since it is not compressed, it takes up a lot more space for one picture.  I went out and bought a bigger memory card just so I can shoot more RAW images on photoshoot's.  Also, this is IMPORTANT, you have to have a program like Adobe RAW to switch those photos into JPG.  At least, that is what I am told.  Don't kill the messenger.  If you research RAW and find out more, PLEASE please share with the rest of us.  We are all learning so don't be stingy!  :)

Also, something that is important to remember is to save and re-save your photos as little as possible.  Every time you save, you lose information.  If you work in Photoshop, save a photo as a .psd until you are completely done meddling with it.  I always, always keep a copy of the original photo so that if after I've edited it once, I find I need to do something else, I can go back to the original.

Okay, last tip.  In my class, my teacher really pushed the program called Adobe Lightroom.  He said it is good for if your not doing a lot of touch ups:  

you can search for things with key words and etc.

you can make slideshows

you can print really easy from it

it saves multiple crops in one picture

I know you can get a student discount when buying it.  I don't know if that means any student gets the discount or just those schools contracted with the company.  Something to look into though if you don't have Photoshop or would just like something that is a little easier to handle and convenient.  My teacher just raved about it.

If any of you have comments about RAW, JPG, or Adobe Lightroom, please share.