Well, everything seemed good until I tried to apply a map to the model. First I applied it to the subD model before collapsing the hierarchy but after the collapse, the map was messed up. I guess because of the UV mapping created when doing the collapse. then I tried to create a simple camera view projection UV map from the collapsed model but that pretty much froze up my computer every time I tried.

Unless someone has a better idea, I'm just going to do this:
1 low poly model
2. convert to subd
3 convert subd back to poly using adaptive setting
4 create my UV maps from converted model
5 right before rendering, I'll apply poly smooth to the model but not to the UVs.
6 render smoothed poly model with mental ray.

One more thing: How do you pull up a report that tells you how many polys are in your model?