I have a conundrum at the moment in that I intend to apply for teaching/demonstrating PhD studentship...the department is looking to recruit 4 people this year and has listed 4 available projects. One of these is what initially attracted me to look into applying, but in the process I've also discovered an interest in another of the projects...so the question now is how to decide between them?

The idea of applying to both did cross my mind but did not seem so wise, as it wouldn't exactly give the message of being committed to either project...and the interviews etc are on the same date.

I've been trying to weigh up factors relating to how each matches my interests and how likely it might be that I could be accepted...but still reached no conclusion - any advice?

I'm not sure what the answer is to this - in fact I am currently in a similar position in that before actually applying, I am attempting to decide between two studentships in the same department. Both meet my interests to a certain extent, but there are also concerns for each that make me wonder whether I'd be more suited to a different topic.

Have you already been offered yours or are you just at application stage?

I'm going to apply to one anyway (afterall there's no acceptance-decision to be made unless they actually offered me the place) but the question is heavily in my mind about whether it would be the 'right' thing...is it possible that something else could actually come up next year that we would rather be doing?

I've done this in the past and got INTJ once and INFP once.

I think your question is really interesting but there are unfortunate methodological issues - the MBTI in particular has issues with validity and reliability...

Do people tend to stick with similar topics? Is it easy/difficult to explore new areas? (Or is it all funding-dependent?)