nugget

McGill is in the top 3 in Canada and they only take 185 out of 2,500 med school applicants worldwide so it does not seem that average grades would cut it, in my humble opinion. What grades are other students in your classes getting? Since you will be competing with other science students and not liberal arts students it doesn't really seem worth the while to compare yourself to them. They are not your competition.

Are you ok with giving this info out to only 2 schools? I'd take the next month to decide between these two schools. If you still don't hear back from the others, there is no need to hang on to both offers. Pick one out of these two options and move on.
If you pick the school requesting the deposit, pay it and keep waiting on the other 3 schools. Paying the deposit is well worth having the peace of mind that there is a spot waiting for you in the fall. If you pick the school that has no deadline, write an email to them indicating the date you will give your final answer and/or deposit (maybe April 16??). Make sure you request written confirmation that this date is acceptable to them and keep a copy of the emails for your records. 
When you hear back about the other 3 schools, hopefully all 3 will be within a similar time frame. If not, ask for an extension with each offer you get so you don't lose any more money than you have to. That way, you will only pay 2 deposits at the most and only 2 schools will get your passport information, rather than 5. 
As an international applicant, is there any chance one of the 3 schools will offer you funding? If not, I don't see why you can't start ranking all 5 schools right now and finalize your list within a month. So when offers come in, you will know right away which ones to decline.   
If funding is a possibilty, then you don't have much of a choice but to wait before ranking the others.
As for bank account info, if you don't go with your first school where you left a deposit, shut down your bank account (a quick and simple process), open up a new one and provide your new bank account info to the school you want to go to. Problem solved.
Unfortunately there is not much you can do about the passport information (unless you submit your spouse's application after you make your final decision, with the possibility that your spouse might join you a little later on). But you can limit exposure to your passport information to only 2 schools, providing that you hear back from the remaining 3 schools before the first one has a deadline. 

This is an expression. It means that a person who is wise does not tarnish relationships or get on someone's bad side until they know they are strong and mighty, and can basically do it all on their own without any help from others.

Both of your ideas sound like good options. While it's a shame things didn't work out as originally planned, your knowledge acquired in the SLP program can be useful when working with clients in an allied profession. Extra knowledge is never a bad thing, and you are likely to receive extra credit for some of your course work.
 
Do you still have access to academic advising or counselling appointments at school for a limited period of time? You may want to look into this if you do. An academic adviser is likely to have seen other students in the same kind of situation and may have some good info and advice to share with you. If you are still concerned about the D, as a final attempt you may want to schedule an appointment with the school's ombudsman and ask if there is another avenue that you could pursue to get that grade adjusted or removed. 
 
Clearly you have a strong work ethic, you are resourceful and have good people/group work skills based on all of the things you said in your original post. You also come across as a very determined person. These attributes and abilities will serve you well as a developmental specialist or social worker. I wish you all the best!

I have a master's in bioinformatics so I know about the comp bio field. You don't need a good background in CS to get into a funded program and you definitely don't need a CS masters. You will be able to take programming classes your first year in a PhD program. Comp bio is an interdisciplinary area so you are expected to come into the program weak in some areas. Plenty of the PhD students at the school I did my MS had no programming experience at all when they came into the program. I would look for a research position. Youll gain research and programming skills through this method, just like you would during a masters. You'll get paid instead of paying though! If your uGPA is reasonable and do you well on GRE quant then you should be able to apply straight into computation bio PhD programs after gaining some research experience.

If you are in it to develop solid counselling skills I think SMSFT is the way to go. If you are interested in social justice issues and helping people in ways that do not exclusively involve counselling, then I'd suggest an MSW. I know someone who has done both (at different schools) and when he compares the two, the MSW training seems to be fairly limited in terms of helping him develop his counselling skills when compared to the SMSFT program. But an MSW is useful in different ways as the training is broader and you learn about marginalization, social justice issues, etc. It is also more recognized and it opens up a greater range of job opportunities, which is one of his reasons for getting an MSW too.

A long time ago, when I was much younger, I was in a similar situation. Because I absolutely needed to continue working and earning money, I only gave 2 weeks notice and said that I was on a wait list for school and just found out I had been offered a spot.
 
This is a moral decision that will be influenced by your financial standing. If you have the luxury of not working for 2 months and being able to pay all of your bills and living expenses then you can decide from a moral standpoint. If you absolutely must work to pay for food, rent,  debt, et cetera, then either you can find another temp job or give them two weeks notice, imo.  

I don't feel like I'm bragging when I explain what I do because I never assume that someone who's on a different path in life would think my choices are better or more impressive than theirs. Just as much as I wouldn't want to be a stay-at-home mom or a kindergarten teacher, SAH moms and kindergarten teachers probably wouldn't want to be biomed PhD students. Truth is, I've noticed that our demographic values intellectual pursuits much more than most people, and frankly they might not be that impressed by just how very smart we are because their worlds don't revolve around that. They might value good interpersonal skills or responsible parenting above all else. That's one neat thing about people - everyone has their own strengths, and the world wouldn't work if everyone only wanted to do the "challenging" things and not the ones that they're best suited for. So what I do is just answer directly without trying too hard to make my work seem less impressive than it sounds. Then I realize that they might actually be feeling bad for me because making more money, having long-term job security, or raising 3 kids by my age is probably exactly what they wanted for themselves and they wouldn't take my place no matter what. Or they think I'm a deranged maniac because of things I do with mice...
 
ETA: to clarify, by answer directly I mean that I say I'm a physiology PhD student. If probed again, I answer that I work in a lab researching [insert several-word blurb about target disease]. I may clarify that it's mouse work if it seems appropriate for the audience. I don't usually go into more detail, and I'm never really asked to. I suppose it helps that often people have no idea what "physiology" is, so the name of my field impresses no one. 

As someone in the humanities, I have had the opposite experience: rather than people finding my subject unapproachable, it seems that everyone has something to say about history, and some have even been comfortable with "correcting" me about historical facts or timelines to my face (if they saw The Tudors , then they must be experts)! There's always something to talk about, but half of the time it's me trying to put on a game face as I listen to someone place my field of interest two centuries out of date or try to impress me with their foreign language skills (which usually means two garbled sentences).
 
Usually I'm pretty patient and am willing to just listen and tell rather than contradict, but sometimes it really gets to me. The worst is when people ask me how I "research" history, since we already know everything that has happened, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries (they read it in a high school textbook, so it must be true!). Some people patently refuse to believe that cutting-edge research can be done in history, and insist that I'm just doing some really advanced training to teach high school social studies. 
 
Ah well, I guess it means I'll always have something to talk about!

I see your first option as an alternative to working for a year. You have no interest in it. But the "salary" of $33,000 (if I understood your post correctly) would be comparable to the salary of an entry level office admin position, after tax deductions. It would also help you accumulate savings to fund your future econ degree, which is ultimately what you want to be doing. The question is, would you be motivated and interested enough in the course content and research to work hard at this program? This is important to ask yourself, as you will need to submit transcripts for all of your studies.
 
The second option seemed like the best one because it is a professional degree. In case research or academia doesn't work out for you right away (something to be prepared for as jobs have become more scarce over the years or temporary and contract-based), you could work in this field and earn a good living until you find something more closely aligned with your interests later on.
 
But then you bring up two other important considerations: health problems and similarities between this program and an MPP. Is your health condition stable in the sense that over the course of the year you should get a good sense of what you can and cannot handle? Or does it fluctuate so that you will not nor ever be able to predict when your health will get in the way of your studies?
 
If it is unpredictable, I would decline both offers and get a job and once you have the money saved up go into the program you like the most. If your academic performance isn't at optimal levels in the upcoming year because of your health, your grades and the possibility of getting strong references from your grad program could jeopardize your chances of getting into your dream program later on. In your dream program, you can register for accessible learning services which would make it easier for you to reduce your course load, drop down to part time or take a medical leave of absence if needed. So I wouldn't worry about this at all.
 
Have you inquired to find out if you could get course exemptions in econ by taking the Public Admin degree? (Sorry if this is an obvious question. I am not in any of your fields). If you could and if this might reduce the length of time your next degree takes to complete, this could give you an added incentive.
 
All in all, when all things are considered, I would personally decline the first offer and ask for a one year deferral to the second one for health reasons IF you could find a job in the upcoming year that would allow you to save the money you need to attend your dream program. If you get too sick to work in the upcoming year, you can take a break from work, reassess your interest in Pub Admin next year, delay completing your dream degree and not worry about burning bridges, tarnishing your record or reducing your chances of acceptance into your dream program.
 
If you know now that you will not be able to find a job with a good salary that will allow you to save money, this is where it becomes tricky. Not knowing about your health situation makes this tricky to give my opinion on. I think I might learn towards option 2 because if this is all you can handle due to being unable to predict the future of your health (or if you know your health condition will slowly deteriorate over time) then delaying might not be an option and at least you could walk away in a good position to start a new career whereas option one is simply the equivalent of a one year job with few benefits for your future.
 
Congrats and good luck with your decisions.

I would try getting a job in a group home for youth. I hear they're pretty easy to get. I have also heard great things about volunteering for Family & Children's Services (F&CS). If you're interested in disabilities of all kinds (physical, cognitive, mental illness, etc), you could also try working as a personal support worker at a children's residential facility for disabilities but you might need to take a PSW course for that (not sure though so you'd need to look into that if this appeals to you). As well, some people volunteer as a teaching aid at public schools and help students with disabilities part take in classroom activities and homework.
 
I know someone who worked as a relief worker for parents with children with disabilities and basically played with the kids and kept them occupied to give their parents a rest once or twice a week. She did this work privately though and had no previous training. The hardest part for her was getting started out. If you can find a couple of contracts and make a great impression, your future clients will find out about you through word of mouth and business will grow. This person, by the way, was able to get into a social service worker program later on and this was the only experience she had in the field.

I have schizoaffective disorder, but I am fairly high-functioning right now. I told my advisor about it after I worked for him last summer, so I proved myself as capable as anyone else without a disorder. Obviously I wasn't going to be able to hide regular appointments during my time in graduate school.
My advice to you is to focus on what you are capable of and not your disabilities. In other words, emphasize that it is generally well-controlled with medication and that you are in treatment/recovering. That was the important part for my advisor.

Hi there- I don't know how useful my advice would be since I don't plan on getting a degree in counseling psychology ...but....
 
I did browse a little bit through both websites, and yeah... BC is very social heavy. That is great for those interested in community psych or policy or things like that. 
NYU's MA program is there for more a sample Master's degree (according to their PDF). That is great to start off your journey since you're not sure of what you'd like at the moment.
I understand your frustrations about NYU having too many people, but at the same time, if you're in a program that doesn't match your interests (no matter how many people are there) you might be forced into a direction that is not what you really want. And that can be worse at a smaller school (not all the time, though ...but it can be).

If you really want to do this, the question should not be could someone with your GPA and profile get into the program? Instead, I'd be asking myself why aren't you already doing your best to give yourself a shot at getting in?

I teach an English Composition class, and I have had that question asked several times. Use to drive me nuts, and I eventually found a way to respond by reflecting back, "what grade, based on the rubric, do you think this draft deserves?" It's a good way to learn what they actually know in a critical thinking way. 
 
Usually I found that there was a disconnect, or misunderstanding about what the rubric was looking for. Many students can't explain to you what they "don't know" so, testing them on the spot lets you identify their weak-spots.

Zombie400, MidwesternAloha:  Thank you so much!  And thanks for putting up with my whining for these last few months!
Tomorrow, when I wake up, that sinking feeling will be gone.  I wish the same for everyone!  May all of you get that notification on your phone, glance down and see "Congratulations!" next to the name of your dream university.  May you all know what it is like to have your heart skip a beat as you hop the boundaries of purgatory, and one fraction of a second is all it takes to bring you there.  
 
Good luck to everyone on here still waiting!  And for those who didn't make it - I came close to being in the same boat.  I would have tried again!  So should you!

UToronto is listed at #24 in the world #1 in Canada.
UBC is listed at #37 in the world #2 in Canada.
McGill is listed at #67 in the world #3 in Canada.
 
http://www.shanghairanking.com/World-University-Rankings/McGill-University.html
 
Another resource gives the universities slightly different world positions, but keeps the 1, 2, 3 order the same.
 
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2014-15/world-ranking
 
What resources are you using to show McGill as the stronger university?

Have many other students at UChicago done their MS and PhD at the same school in your field? Find out and you should get your answer.

Your use of any is ambiguous here.
 
If you mean literally every person who applies now will get in, of course not. They will still maintain standards and would rather leave a spot empty than admit somebody who they don't want.
 
If you mean if there is the possibility that they will still accept some people, if their application is good, then I would guess the answer is yes. After all, they are still accepting applications.

We had a student here who failed twice. He tried switching programs (with his advisor pushing for him) and none of the departments would take him because he failed in our department. My best advice would be to take a masters, attempt to solidify LORs, and reapply elsewhere. A fresh start may do wonders.

Not my field, but if both programs are comparable in terms of ranking, I'd go with UW if lack of funding is not important to you. If you need to take out a loan or if it would be a struggle to come up with the funds, then go with U of T.
 
If you stop after a masters, a 2 year program would likely give you more preparation for the job market. If you go for a PhD, you would also be more prepared and it would look better to admissions committees to be in the longer program (assuming you make the most use of that extra year in school and have something to show for it).
 
If you think your odds of getting into a good PhD program won't be compromised by a 1 year masters (if the program is a great reputation and if it's enough time for you to amply build your cv), then I think you should seriously consider it.
 
(That being said, I personally would take it. Why pay for an education when you can get one for free? But that's just me because I hate debt).

I understand.  This is my second year applying.  After being rejected from 9 schools last year and this year applying to 11 and being waitlisted at three and still waiting to hear from one, you have to realize that we will be where we are meant to be.  What's funny is that three of my doctors were waitlisted for med school and now they are ranked among the top doctors and surgeons in the country.  Stay positive! We'll all be ok!! Best of luck to everyone!

 
 
Thanks! I got the offer this morning! So excited! The perfect ending for this year's applicaiton for me.

I FINALLY got accepted off of the waitlist yesterday, W00t!  (Been there since mid-January.)  Congrats to everyone else that has made it, and hang in there to those who have not yet heard back.  There is still hope folks!

After receiving rejections and only one waitlist my chances were very slim. But out of the blue yesterday I got accepted off the wait list. I am still in total shock never expected this. Miracles can happen. Hang in there guys I am rooting for all you also on wait lists.