Who Should Write the STS Project Recommendation When Research Was Done in a Lab

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

The STS Project Recommendation should come from the mentor who can describe, in specific terms, what your child did in the lab. If a postdoc supervised the day-to-day work, that is often a better choice than a PI who saw the project from a distance, and either way you should ask now, because recommendations are due by the same deadline as the application, November 5, 2026 at 8 PM ET, no exceptions.

The rest of this post is about making that choice well and making the ask easy to say yes to.

What the application asks for

The Regeneron STS application requires three recommendations: an Educator Recommendation, a Project Recommendation, and the High School Report, which is the transcript. Recommendations from teachers and mentors are required.

The Project Recommendation is the one that speaks to the research itself. For a student who worked in a university lab, that means someone from the lab.

Why the right writer matters for lab research

Research done alongside adult researchers at a research institution is permitted. Judges assess whether the work is substantially the student’s own.

That is the question a Project Recommendation can help answer. A letter that says what the student designed, ran, analyzed and figured out supports the paper. A letter that only praises the lab’s project does not.

PI or postdoc

In our view, pick the person who watched the work happen.

The PI leads the lab and its larger project. The PI and postdocs are running their own science, and in a busy lab the PI may know the student mostly through updates.

A postdoc or other researcher who supervised the student week to week can usually say more: which questions the student asked, what went wrong, how they fixed it. Specific beats senior.

If the PI knows the student’s work well, the PI is a fine choice. The test is the same either way: can this person describe your child’s own contribution, not just the lab’s?

Keep the PI in the loop either way

The mentor’s permission is needed to submit. Even if the postdoc writes the recommendation, the PI should know about the entry and agree to it before anything goes in.

A short, early conversation avoids surprises. Nobody wants to learn about an application from a recommendation request.

Ask early

Lab mentors have their own deadlines, grants and experiments. A request that arrives a few days before the STS deadline competes with all of it.

The deadline is November 5, 2026 at 8 PM ET, and recommendations are due by that same deadline, no exceptions. A missing recommendation is not something the student can fix after the fact.

Ask as soon as you know who it should be. Then follow up politely as the date gets close.

Make the ask easy

The student does the work here too. That means the student makes the request, not a parent.

A good ask is short and specific. It helps to include:

• What the Regeneron STS is, in a sentence or two.
• The deadline: November 5, 2026 at 8 PM ET.
• A one-page summary of the student’s own question, what they did, and what they found.
• A clear line on which parts were the student’s and which were the lab’s.

The letter itself should be the recommender’s own words. The summary just saves them from reconstructing months of work from memory.

Make sure the story matches

The application requires disclosure of all support received with the research project and the application. Entrants and mentors must also disclose participation in paid programs.

The paper, the disclosures and the Project Recommendation should tell the same story. If the paper says the student ran an analysis, the recommender should not describe someone else running it.

That is easier when the student has already written down who did what. A mentor guides; the student owns the question, the data and the writing.

Learn how we guide students through this 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

Should the professor or the postdoc write my child’s STS recommendation?

The person who can describe your child’s own work in detail. If a postdoc supervised day to day, that is often the stronger letter. Keep the PI informed either way, since the mentor’s permission is needed to submit.

When is the STS Project Recommendation due?

By the same deadline as the application: November 5, 2026 at 8 PM ET, no exceptions.

What recommendations does Regeneron STS require?

Three: an Educator Recommendation, a Project Recommendation, and the High School Report, which is the transcript.

Can my child’s mentor write about the lab’s whole project?

The letter is most useful when it focuses on what your child did. Judges assess whether the work is substantially the student’s own, and a letter about the lab’s project in general does not help answer that.

Should I contact the lab mentor for my child?

In our view, the student should make the request. They know the work, and it is their application.