Do You Have to Disclose Outside Help or a Mentor on the Regeneron STS Application?

By Dr. Harman Brah, MD · Judge, California Science & Engineering Fair

Yes. The Regeneron STS application requires disclosure of all support received with the research project and the application, and that includes a mentor, a lab and any outside help.

Entrants and mentors must also disclose participation in paid programs. Getting help is normal and allowed. Leaving it out is the real risk.

What has to be disclosed

The rule covers two things: support with the research project, and support with the application itself.

That means help with the science, such as a mentor who guided the design or a lab that supplied the bench. It also means help with the paper and the rest of the application.

If your child took part in a paid program, it gets disclosed. The rule applies to the entrant and to the mentor, so both sides should be telling the same story.

Why disclosing help does not hurt

Regeneron STS permits research done alongside adult researchers at a research institution. Help from adults is built into how serious student research happens.

What judges assess is whether the work is substantially the student’s own. A clear account of who helped with what makes the student’s own part easier to see.

In our view, credit given to others makes the student’s part more believable. A student who names the mentor’s role, and then plainly owns the question, the data and the writing, reads as honest and confident.

Why hiding help is the risk

In our view, a project that looks parent- or mentor-built is seen through quickly. Judges probe whether the student can explain why each choice was made and what they would do next, without a script.

If the disclosures say little but the paper reads like an expert wrote it, that gap is what a judge notices. The recommendations add another view of the work, since a Project Recommendation is part of the application.

The paper, the disclosures and the recommendations should all agree. If the paper says the student ran an analysis, nothing else in the file should suggest someone else did.

What a mentor can and cannot do

A mentor guides. The student does the work: the student owns the question, the data and the writing.

The research report is a maximum 20-page original scientific paper, and the student writes it. A mentor can ask hard questions, point out a weak control, and push for clearer sentences. A mentor should not write the paper or produce the results.

If your child works in a university lab and also has an outside mentor, the outside mentor works with the lab, not around it. In our view that means no new experiments without the PI, no changes to the lab’s data, and the help is disclosed.

The mentor’s permission is also needed to submit, so the lab mentor should know the entry is going in.

How to get the disclosures right

Before writing the disclosures, list each part of the project and who did it: who suggested the question, who designed it, who ran it, who analyzed it, who read drafts.

Then list the help with the application: anyone who read the paper or the essays, and any paid program.

Write it plainly and specifically. A vague line invites questions. A clear one answers them before they are asked.

Timing

The 2027 application closes November 5, 2026 at 8 PM ET. Recommendations are due by the same deadline, no exceptions.

Leave time for the disclosures. They are easy to write when the student has been honest about the help all along.

Learn how we guide students through STS at https://admissioninsight.org/science-fair-research-mentorship/, and see what to finish before the deadline in https://admissioninsight.org/regeneron-sts-2027-final-weeks/.

FAQ

Does my child have to say they had a mentor on the STS application?

Yes. The application requires disclosure of all support received with the research project and the application. A mentor’s guidance is part of that support.

We paid for a research program. Do we have to mention it?

Yes. Entrants and mentors must disclose participation in paid programs. Disclosing it is expected, and it is far safer than leaving it out.

Will disclosing help make judges think my child didn’t do the work?

Not if the disclosures are clear. Research done alongside adult researchers is permitted, and judges assess whether the work is substantially the student’s own. Naming what others did makes your child’s own part clearer.

Can a mentor write or edit the STS research paper?

A mentor can guide and give feedback, and that help should be disclosed. The student writes the paper and owns the question, the data and the words.

What happens if my child’s STS work was done in a university lab?

That is allowed. The lab mentor’s permission is needed to submit, and the lab’s role, along with any outside help, should be disclosed.