04/30/2026
A note for the professors in my network, and really anyone supervising graduate students.
The grant landscape in 2026 has never been tougher. NSF and DOE awards are harder to win than they've ever been, and every student you accept is tied directly to a five-year, six-figure commitment from money you fought to secure. Reference letters and transcripts are valuable, but in this climate, "valuable" isn't always "enough."
Here's a framework I've seen work for both sides of the table. In addition to the standard application packet, ask serious applicants for two things:
A two-minute unscripted video where they explain what excites them about your current project — not a polished pitch, just them talking
A Small Remote Project — five hours of real work on your active grant, whether that's cleaning supplemental data, replicating a figure, or summarizing a paper
Now you have three dimensions of signal: the CV, the voice, and the actual work product. That's enough to commit to a five-year mentorship with confidence.
I built GeoSciMatcher to make this framework the default for geoscience. It's free, and it surfaces the funded labs and helps the right students find you.
Try it → https://geoscimatcher.vercel.app
