nugget

I am definitely not a veteran but I am familiar with military culture (although Canadian). I was part of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets for all of my teenage years, which is a youth program run by Canadian Forces personnel. In the summers, we go on course at a military base to get some specific training. Just to be absolutely clear, I have a ton of respect for veterans and active duty personnel from all nations, and I am not saying we shared a lot of the same experience, but I think I did understand what you were getting at with respect to discipline and deportment.
 
In cadets, respect of authority is absolutely important. If a NCO or officer walked into a classroom, a cadet near the front would immediately call the room to attention. Everyone was "sir", "ma'am" or their rank and last name. My superiors knew they could rely on me to carry out their orders and when I became an NCO, I knew that those below me will get their job done. We all took pride in pushing ourselves to our limit and improving our ability.
 
And all of this is very important in cadets. We were a youth program so we obviously have no combat training or anything like that. But we worked with aircraft, conducted field training exercises in the wilderness, and a lot of fun and educational stuff that required a lot of cooperation and a structure to get things done. So I think that environment is one where the military professionalism is important. And part of it is just tradition too.
 
However, I don't think this transfers very well to the academic world. I think the military world is one where a small group of people thrive and the rest don't do as well. At least in cadets, you need to be disciplined, focussed, assertive, and be able to make timely decisions in order to succeed. In my squadron, I notice that the shy kids that are quiet and don't answer questions or the ones that cannot remain focussed on a task generally do not do very well, despite their actual ability. 
 
But these traits are not as important in academia, and if we try to force the military paradigm on academics, I think we are going to lose a lot of bright minds. I just wanted to point out that academia is a very different world. And just like moving from any one workforce to another, the transition might be tough at first, but if you are serious about the new workforce, it is important to adapt and overcome these new challenges.

Stay where you are. It will be very weird trying to explain why you left School A and then went back.

I transferred twice. The first time, after my first semester as a freshman. The second time, as a rising junior beginning my third year of college. I've never had any negative repercussions from transferring. But I would suggest you stay were you are.

If you're really passionate about social work, perhaps you could get a job for a year or two that lets you gain experience in the field. That will make you a stronger candidate and help show admissions committees that you have what it takes to excel and won't fail (for whatever reason) another field placement.

Jealous is a funny thing... you might be jealous of other people, but did you ever consider that other people could be jealous of you?! And most likely for very different reasons. Based on things you've said in the past, you are cute, attractive, have a great scholarship, have your own car and apartment, got into grad school, and have a lot of freedom and some spare time because you don't have a family to raise.
 
There could be people in your cohort who are jealous of you for any or all of those reasons.
 
Being single and attached both come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Nothing is completely black or white. Try to discover and enjoy the perks of singlehood now because they won't last forever. When you finally find that special person you will be ready to let go of that phase of life and embrace the perks and challenges of being married and raising a family.  

Could you say more about why you failed the placement? The supervisor should have provided specific reasons as to why you were not successful. Did you think there were extenuating circumstances that caused you to fail that would not have occurred at a different placement or that would not occur in the future? ex: personal problems/health reasons impacting your performance, personality conflict between you at your supervisor, etc....
 
While it is very rare, I have heard of MSW students who had to end their placements early and do another one the following semester. But in those cases the students did not fail, they were granted an "incomplete" and had to do another placement the following semester instead.
 
I think it would be worthwhile to take a careful, honest look at why the other placement did not work out and to realistically consider whether or not this would or would not happen again at a different placement. Going back to school is very costly and time consuming, not to mention the outcome of your coursework and placements would permanently stay on your academic record. So I think it would be wise to think through this decision very carefully and to make sure that this goal is feasible and realistic and the best choice for your future career.
 
Best of luck.

Heif1,
You can prove your attributes by highlighting examples of when these traits shone during your work or volunteer experience or by explaining why certain traits are required in past work you've done and how those same traits are relevant to social work. If you give it more thought, you should be able to come up with other ways to do demonstrate your traits in your SOP. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Lots of great advice above.
 
Another drawback of this is that some fields are very specialized. What if the same reviewer gets asked by both journals? There's a significant non-zero chance of that happening and it could really blow up in your face.

Smpalsh,
 
It sounds like you have been under a lot of stress lately, and understandably so. Remember to take some deep breaths and exhale. You received one great offer and were put on the waitlist last year. You are a strong candidate. This has not changed since last year. Tweaking it sounds like a great idea. Since you did well with this version in the past, tweaking is probably all that it needs.
 
Good luck!

Remember that you may not be getting the entire story for any number of reasons. The story you have heard from the student is likely to be told based on what the student was comfortable sharing with lab mates due to any combination of reasons or feelings such as anger, shame, embarrassment, shock, etc...
 
Witnessing someone getting kicked out who doesn't work hard is one thing, but when it happens to someone who works hard it seems unfair and unjustified. It's especially difficult when it's a nice person we consider to be a friend. I think it's really a shame for this person. Hopefully the student will take away something valuable from the experience, if not now then at a future point in time that will enhance their personal or professional growth. Who knows what other good opportunities are in store for this person now what they have been put on a different life path. Perhaps a new job, a different program, increased personal strength, resiliency, or determination to get back in the field... Only time will tell.

Remember that you may not be getting the entire story for any number of reasons. The story you have heard from the student is likely to be told based on what the student was comfortable sharing with lab mates due to any combination of reasons or feelings such as anger, shame, embarrassment, shock, etc...
 
Witnessing someone getting kicked out who doesn't work hard is one thing, but when it happens to someone who works hard it seems unfair and unjustified. It's especially difficult when it's a nice person we consider to be a friend. I think it's really a shame for this person. Hopefully the student will take away something valuable from the experience, if not now then at a future point in time that will enhance their personal or professional growth. Who knows what other good opportunities are in store for this person now what they have been put on a different life path. Perhaps a new job, a different program, increased personal strength, resiliency, or determination to get back in the field... Only time will tell.

There are many possible reasons for expulsion, not all of them are related to academics performance. What the professors told you might just be a way to keep the matter confidential (since it is not your business to begin with). 
It is unfortunate, but life goes on and the best you can do is to respect your friend's privacy, and maybe to offer help with moving etc.

When I was applying to grad programs, I applied to every program that interested me in order to increase my opportunities. Once the offers came in, I only ranked the schools that offered me a spot and this made the decision much easier.

Graduating from and Ivy does not guarantee instant interviews in science. Its whose lab you worked in, who your PI knows and what your CV looks like. Unless all the PI's at ETH as crap it shouldn't be a problem, as long as you can find a supportive PI whose lab you can do good work in. If you are getting your MS in Neuroscience why do you care about people not knowing your schools name outside of science? Do you plan to go into marketing/psych/comm? If you're going to stick with science why does it matter? Or does it bother you that the average person in the US has no idea where your school is? Lets be honest, most people in the US have no idea what Caltech, Reed, WashU, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Rice, Scripps, Janelia, Mayo Clinic etc are. It doesn't mean they aren't great institutions. Who cares! A prestigious school doesn't necessarily have the best program.  You also are saving 80K in debt. That's a lot of $$$ you're going to save by not having student loans.

So, I was staring at my opened OUAC application this morning and decided to finish it up and submit it anyways. I know I must sound like a crazy person for being so indecisive! But it's submitted! I will drop off the hard copies of my application materials sometime this week at the School of Social Work, and then hopefully not think about it too much until admission letters start being sent out. It feels like a shot in the dirt, but at least I will have experience knowing how to apply and what the wait feels like. 

I have not experienced this before. I do know others who have supervisors that are like this though. I don't think it's a bad thing that you don't want constant supervision but I don't think it's inherently bad that the professor wants to manage his lab in this manner either. The problem is that your styles do not match well! Here are some things you might consider trying:
 
1. Have an honest and polite conversation with your advisor about how you feel when you are constantly checked up on.
 
2. Don't change your working habits, and just deliver the reports as requested (i.e. don't let the frequency of report affect your work). Every morning, just deliver the exact same report as you gave the previous evening. Make it clear that when you are closing for the day, you are closing and not working any more. 
 
3. Change supervisors.
 
4. Adjust your work habits to work with this style of management.
 
My friends in a similar situation as yours have done all 4 of these things. #1 doesn't seem to work well (i.e. it doesn't change anything) but it's usually a good first step. After all, the PI has the prerogative to manage his/her lab the way they want.
 
#2 works the best for the specific professor I'm thinking of. This professor wants their students to work a certain way and so they apply pressure to do so. Sometimes it works and the professor gets what they want (i.e. case #4). But other times, the students make it clear that they don't want to change and if the student is stubborn and firm, the professor relents and basically stops asking for the morning report since it provides no new information (i.e. case #2). Finally, a few students end up just working for someone else (case #3) if they don't want this type of conflict in their life.

Thanks omg I went back to all the submitted apps and was able to update 4 out of 13 of them. Thank you so much!!!

Hi LP3,
 
I hear you about wanting to lower your debt. It can have a way of accumulating quickly and takes a lot of time to pay off. In case you did not know, I wanted to share that York has a great program for people not wanting to accumulate a lot of debt. Everyone I have heard of who was accepted into their MSW program received a TA offer ($5,000 per semester) and some got a scholarship as well. The tuition fees are also lower than Laurier's, so you may wish to add that school to your list.
 

I have no experience with this, but unfortunately I think it might make your life difficult. I think lots of systems in the US (and elsewhere) are set up to require both a first name and last name and just aren't equipped to handle your situation. You'll just have to figure out something to tell them as your first name.
 
I found this post that contains some useful advice:
http://ask.metafilter.com/176533/What-are-legal-aspects-of-changing-ones-name-to-a-mononym-or-employing-multiple-legal-aliases
 
Also, this advice website for getting US visas:
http://www.immihelp.com/immigration/passport.html
 
I'd suggest choosing one of the options described in these posts. If the immigration website is right and your student visa will say FNU, I would simply go with that everywhere. I am sure that there are ways to verify this, for example by contacting any international student from your country who is in the US. I am sure they would be happy to help with this. Otherwise, the other two options that seemed reasonable to me were either use your name twice, or use NoFirstName for the first name field. I'd avoid symbols like space or dot because some systems might not let you use that.  
 
Whatever you do, I think it'd be best if you made the same decision for all your interactions in the US. It'll be difficult enough to deal with this without needing to remember what solution you chose for which service/system.
 
ETA: found another website, this time an official US one. Looks like they'll use FNU. Also note that they specifically mention that you might have difficulties, and suggest some action for dealing with it: http://chennai.usconsulate.gov/temporary-visitors/faqs.html 
I think you might want to try contacting the US embassy in your country to ask about this.

Glad it worked out. I think most professors are busy enough that small things like this might cause us days of stress and agony but to them, it's over in the time it took the prof to write that first reply. 

@soapaddict you can find out the university's specializations on their department webpage. York's focus is an anti-oppression perspective.

Jealous is a funny thing... you might be jealous of other people, but did you ever consider that other people could be jealous of you?! And most likely for very different reasons. Based on things you've said in the past, you are cute, attractive, have a great scholarship, have your own car and apartment, got into grad school, and have a lot of freedom and some spare time because you don't have a family to raise.
 
There could be people in your cohort who are jealous of you for any or all of those reasons.
 
Being single and attached both come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Nothing is completely black or white. Try to discover and enjoy the perks of singlehood now because they won't last forever. When you finally find that special person you will be ready to let go of that phase of life and embrace the perks and challenges of being married and raising a family.  

Most American PhD programs are going to involve coursework in the first few years, with little research. It is easy to say 'Oh, I've learned my lesson, I will study harder next time' - but unfortunately the only definite thing you have is your previous non-stellar track-record. Based on your track record, most admissions committees would assume that you'd continue the bad grade trend. 
 
I would also argue against your assertion that it must be an American PhD or nothing to ensure a good job. I would argue that America is not doing much better than the EU: a lot of industrial jobs are "being relocated" from the West to the Far East. Compared to European regulations, America has lousy job security, atrocious work-life balance (not only do Americans get fewer paid holidays...but don't even take all the holidays they get) and poor benefits (maternity leave is unpaid, usually). In contrast, Switzerland and Germany still have strong scientific/manufacturing industries and retain reasonable working conditions, whilst the Nordic counties have really great social safety nets. 
 
If the American PhD isn't suited to you (and even if you get into a new program you'll have to repeat the same heavy coursework requirements again - you didn't sound too enthused about that in your original post), then I would just get a PhD from a good European university and plan to complete a postdoc in the USA. EU PhD & US postdoc is really common, and the European universities would probably care less about your bad coursework grades, since coursework isn't usually a part of their PhD programs.

Jealous is a funny thing... you might be jealous of other people, but did you ever consider that other people could be jealous of you?! And most likely for very different reasons. Based on things you've said in the past, you are cute, attractive, have a great scholarship, have your own car and apartment, got into grad school, and have a lot of freedom and some spare time because you don't have a family to raise.
 
There could be people in your cohort who are jealous of you for any or all of those reasons.
 
Being single and attached both come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Nothing is completely black or white. Try to discover and enjoy the perks of singlehood now because they won't last forever. When you finally find that special person you will be ready to let go of that phase of life and embrace the perks and challenges of being married and raising a family.  

If there is a Director of Graduate studies then I would talk to them. Explain the situation and your concerns, then ask them what options are available. Keep your explanation to the facts, rather than voicing speculations. Don't attempt to "diagnose" your PI, that isn't going to help anyone. Seek out an informal mentor at first, rather than a full co-advisor. 
 
It will be difficult to apply to new programs without letters of reference from your current PI - it is something that AdComm's would expect to see. If you think that there is a risk your PI wouldn't be a reliable letter writer, then you will probably have to cultivate another mentor/co-advisor anyway.