My goal for 3D printing is to make a class ring for my son’s kindergarten class. My experience with 3D rendering is an AutoCAD class in 1999. I’ve played around on thingiverse, and the customizers aren’t able to give me a readable ring (or I lack the skill to make them do so). I need the ring by mid-June, so I don’t have time to try out a bunch of different programs. Which program would you recommend for a beginner whose goal is to write on a ring (i.e. a program that does text would be preferred to having to construct the text from shapes)?

Tinkercad.com is really easy. Give it a try. Its easy to learn too.

Seconded TinkerCad. It’s really easy to use and it has a text tool. It also produces rock-solid files that are easy to print.