Hi I'm 3 years into a PhD in organic chemistry which had very little basis from the beginning but I was too naive to know that. I was so excited when I started my PhD and was really enthusiastic (I know, we've all been there!) but now I find it hard to go into the lab everyday. I have hardly any results so far and am not sure how long more I can continue on for. Does anybody have any idea roughly how many new molecules you need to synthesise for a PhD? Is it ok to submit a PhD where nothing worthwhile has worked but you've tried lots of different routes?

Hi Cyc,

I'm 3 years into my Science PhD in a very reputable University but my project just had no basis from the start so I've had nothing but difficulties for the 3 years. So I would not say that going to a "reputable" university is very important. What I do think is important from a science perspective is that there is previous research/results/expertise in the group relating to the project or at the very least that there is something that you can work from in the literature. I'm not sure if this is helpful advice for Psychology, but could you ask your potential supervisor about the background for the topic and look into it before accepting?

Hope that this is some help