The controller told ME to go around, remember? I would have landed
behind the student pilot ahead of me -- or over him, if need be -- if
the controller hadn't given the order to go around.

So... let's see. If under option #1 you landed behind the student, you had
enough room to guarantee a full stop before running him down? Since your
option #2 would have been to scare the bejeezus out of the student by
landing "over him", I presume the student wasn't near the far end of the
runway, so some numbers just don't seem right, here. If you needed to be
told to "go around" in that scenario, perhaps the controller knows you
personally? ;-)

What I thought I could or could not do is irrelevant. The controller
told me to go around, so I did -- end of story.

At an uncontrolled field, if the student had cut in front of me (as he
did when he was ordered to do so by the tower controller) I would have
executed a 360 degree turn for spacing, or landed short behind him. I
also would have got on the radio and asked him to land long and keep
it rolling.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"