I'm just curious, why are you converting the RAW photos to JPEG? Is there a benefit or need to this I'm missing?

My advise, go to an actual camera shop, not knowing where you live I can't suggest a particular on but actually holding each camera in your hands will help make the decision a lot easier. What a camera looks like and what others suggest and like isn't as important as what you feel comfortable with. A good shop will have used equipment and will stand behind it, a good way to get a lot more bang for your buck. Stay with a major brand and that brands lenses, you'll seldom go wrong there. Good luck in your search and enjoy!

My first thought is, what are you trying to gain? I suggest you set your camera to shoot JPEG & RAW, then you can decide which is best for what you are trying to achieve.

Gitzo, you're right, this is a general forum, but it's not exclusively yours. People will rise to the bait and take you to task for your one sided, biased and uninformed ideas and opinions. Admit you enjoy the banter but don't feel this website is solely here for your pleasure.
Mitt Romney stopped paying his campaign workers the night he lost the election, stranding many without hotel rooms or flights home, typical republican. Republicans cut SNAP programs for the poor and unemployment benefits for folks out of work, yea, they sure do give!
The one thing you don't do is post anything relative to photography, nothing at all, humm, what's up with that.

This illustrates an excellent reason to shoot raw. I've been shooting raw for several years with a nikon D700 and saving the photos on a iMac using iPhoto and Aperture. Either program automatically converts the raw files. No matter what I do to the photo or how many times, no quality is lost. I've taken photos with my iPhone that look good on the iPhone and iMac and print well at 8 X 10 but fall short at 17 X 23. The reason, JPEG! Just saying. Everything about the photo looks great and you've put a lot into the studio and lighting with a lot of attention to detail, take it to the next level and try raw. It's like driving a Porsche on the track using street tires. Just saying.

My my, ignorance is not wasted on you! I'll bet you spend most of your day surfing right wing sites feeding your hate for Obama and fear of Muslims. Suggestion, shut off the TV, step away from the computer, grab your camera and go for a walk. Life is too short to spend so much time expounding hate for anyone who doesn't subscribe to your philosophy! Just saying.

I agree with jpanar, buy yourself an iMac. You should be eligible for an educational discount, which is substantial. A few years ago my daughter wanted a iMac for Christmas so I drove 60 miles to the Apple store. The salesperson what I needed and I explained a Mac for my daughter, a photographer. I was amazed with what he showed me and after 10 minutes I was so convinced I bought one for my daughter and one for myself. Everything that comes on a Mac is yours, no trial version to buy after 60 days or try to remove if you don't buy. No anti virus software to buy and install, not necessary! IPhoto, the resident photo storage and editing program suits most of my needs and Aperture does all of it very well. Once you experience the ease and simplicity of a Mac you'll understand my enthusiasm!

If you Google raw vs jpeg you'll find numerous links that'll answer your question. I think of jpeg as driving a family sedan with an automatic transmission, put it in gear and all the thinking is done for you. Raw, on the other hand is like driving a Porsche with a six speed manual transmission, you are in charge and in complete control, from start to finish. RAW is not magical or mystical and doesn't require vast amounts of skills know only to a select few. I use a iMac which comes with iPhoto and it does everything that I need done. If I need more, I use Aperture on the Mac, sort of like iPhoto on steroids. Both programs translate all of the formats seamlessly without any help from me.
Keep in mind, each and every time you open and do anything to a jpeg, it gets diminished in quality. If you fail to set all the settings in your camera, white balance, exposure etc, where they should be for that jpeg photo, too bad.
Not so for raw, any setting you forgot to make on your camera can be easily corrected when you process the photo.
Try it out for yourself and I think you'll find its worth considering.