Hi there, I am an EU graduate and I have just received two offers in UK. So right now I am a little hesitant in my decision and hope to receive your opinions.
The two positions are:

MSc in virology at Imperial college of London. I have to pay. I still don't know how it works with loans, or studentships in UK but it seems that I have to pay everything (3500 pounds) foe 1 year. It is a very good course though. Actually it is a Taught and Research course (6months courses and 6 months to work on a thesis in lab)

The other one is:
4-year programme at Southampton University. The first year is a MRes then I would go through a 3 year PhD. It is a MRC studentship but since I am non UK They will pay me only the fees, for all 4 years.

I like them both, and if I have only one of them I would have accepted it right away. That's why I cannot decide easily.

What I think is that with the MSc at Imperial... it would be very hard but if I succeed in doing it I could have good chances to get a funded PhD next year..... even if my problem is the age! next year I will be 28!!!!

Do you think my age would be a huge disadvantage then? Do you think that a Master at Imperial would have a very big weight on my CV rather than my age? and so good to be worthy to spend a lot of money on it?

I am graduated in Biology

hi,
i believe age doesn't matter that much. at least in england.

re funding, i am an EU student as well and i found that it is very hard to get funding in the UK, as they will only pay for people who have been resident for three years. you can get fees, that's it. and that tends to be very competitive, too...

so you should be looking for funding mostly in your home country. if age is a problem there, i don't know. it is in Germany, but in Switzerland for example 28 is not old to start a PhD.

other things to consider are the location, and if you go on the one year course you will be spending a lot of time in that year planning your future, writing applications etc. instead of focusing on your work. on the other hand you'd have some extra time to decide on what exactly you want to spend the next 3-4 years, you'd still have more flexibility.