I'm in a slightly unusual situation here. I'm a computer scientist, finishing my bachelor's this year. My interest is in theory. Although I have been turned down for the PhD programmes I applied for, I have been offered three things:
1. A funded 1.5-year taught MSc in Theoretical CS (with thesis component) at ETH Zurich.
2. A 1-year taught MSc in Maths & Theoretical CS at Oxford, possibly funded (otherwise very expensive).
3. A 1-year research assistantship at Caltech in a largely unrelated area, with publication potential.
My goal after any of these is (at present) a PhD in the US. Ordinarily I would leap on the first one since I got a scholarship for it, but I'm worried that if I do, I'll end up essentially repeating those courses in my PhD. I'd rather not limit myself to schools offering transfer credit. I like the idea of the assistantship, but it's not really related to what I want to do so I don't know how useful it will be.
Any thoughts?