How do I make jQuery wait for an Ajax call to finish before it returns?

I am not using $.ajax but the $.post and $.get functions, so if I need to wait for the response, I use this:

$.ajaxSetup({async: false});
$.get("...");

If you don't want the $.ajax() function to return immediately, set the async option to false:

$(".my_link").click(
    function(){
    $.ajax({
        url: $(this).attr('href'),
        type: 'GET',
        async: false,
        cache: false,
        timeout: 30000,
        fail: function(){
            return true;
        },
        done: function(msg){ 
            if (parseFloat(msg)){
                return false;
            } else {
                return true;
            }
        }
    });
});

But, I would note that this would be counter to the point of AJAX. Also, you should be handling the response in the fail and done functions. Those functions will only be called when the response is received from the server.

Instead of setting async to false which is usually bad design, you may want to consider blocking the UI while the operation is pending.

This can be nicely achieved with jQuery promises as follows:

// same as $.ajax but settings can have a maskUI property
// if settings.maskUI==true, the UI will be blocked while ajax in progress
// if settings.maskUI is other than true, it's value will be used as the color value while bloking (i.e settings.maskUI='rgba(176,176,176,0.7)'
// in addition an hourglass is displayed while ajax in progress
function ajaxMaskUI(settings) {
    function maskPageOn(color) { // color can be ie. 'rgba(176,176,176,0.7)' or 'transparent'
        var div = $('#maskPageDiv');
        if (div.length === 0) {
            $(document.body).append('<div id="maskPageDiv" style="position:fixed;width:100%;height:100%;left:0;top:0;display:none"></div>'); // create it
            div = $('#maskPageDiv');
        }
        if (div.length !== 0) {
            div[0].style.zIndex = 2147483647;
            div[0].style.backgroundColor=color;
            div[0].style.display = 'inline';
        }
    }
    function maskPageOff() {
        var div = $('#maskPageDiv');
        if (div.length !== 0) {
            div[0].style.display = 'none';
            div[0].style.zIndex = 'auto';
        }
    }
    function hourglassOn() {
        if ($('style:contains("html.hourGlass")').length < 1) $('<style>').text('html.hourGlass, html.hourGlass * { cursor: wait !important; }').appendTo('head');
        $('html').addClass('hourGlass');
    }
    function hourglassOff() {
        $('html').removeClass('hourGlass');
    }

    if (settings.maskUI===true) settings.maskUI='transparent';

    if (!!settings.maskUI) {
        maskPageOn(settings.maskUI);
        hourglassOn();
    }

    var dfd = new $.Deferred();
    $.ajax(settings)
        .fail(function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
            if (!!settings.maskUI) {
                maskPageOff();
                hourglassOff();
            }
            dfd.reject(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown);
        }).done(function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
            if (!!settings.maskUI) {
                maskPageOff();
                hourglassOff();
            }
            dfd.resolve(data, textStatus, jqXHR);
        });

    return dfd.promise();
}

with this you can now do:

ajaxMaskUI({
    url: url,
    maskUI: true // or try for example 'rgba(176,176,176,0.7)'
}).fail(function (jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
    console.log('error ' + textStatus);
}).done(function (data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log('success ' + JSON.stringify(data));
});

And the UI will block until the ajax command returns

see jsfiddle

The underlying XMLHttpRequest object (used by jQuery to make the request) supports the asynchronous property. Set it to false. Like

async: false