Regeneron STS 2026

I've had plenty of opportunities to speak about this event over the last month to various people, but I still feel the urge to write about it. First off, by Regeneron STS, I mean STS finals week, which took place from Mar 5-11 this year. Second, it easily topped ISEF as the most stressful week of my life (not a record I hope to break often).

For seven days, forty of us stayed across the 4th and 5th floors of a five-star hotel. The competition took place on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Between appointments, we sang karaoke in the finalist lounge and drank exclusively from glass Saratoga bottles as cameras chased us around.

My high school sent three finalists to STS this year, which I'm sure at least ties the record for most from one school. We hadn't had a finalist in 5 years, so you can imagine how everyone was feeling.

Navy, Gray, or Black

For the most part, I walked around in a t-shirt and athletic pants when I was at Regeneron ISEF 2025. Only during ceremonies and judging did I wear the single suit I'd packed. I packed five suits for STS.

Things always seem better with a suit on. Something so powerful it can even demand attention to a 17-year-old. Sometimes it pains me that I can't wear one all of the time. Then again, it's not so much the suit, but rather, having something to wear a suit for, that's important. And this was something.

Curfew Procedure

Something that surprised me back at ISEF was just how smooth everything ran. The judging appointments ran like clockwork on 15-minute schedules, bells ringing to signal when judges should move to their next assigned project. Everything ran on schedule. Speeches were well-vetted and delivered. STS was no different.

Imagine you're me: You just wrapped up a busy day at Regeneron STS finals week. You walk to the lounge and collect a printed sheet called the nightly update. It's a different-colored sheet of paper every day, and contains the finalized schedule for tomorrow. You take the elevator up to the fourth floor, pen down the current time and your signature on a spreadsheet, then head to your room. You lock the door, hold the nightly update to said door, and take a selfie, which you then upload onto a dedicated Slack channel. A staff member places a piece of warranty tape on the outside to ensure you don't leave after curfew.

It was a bizarre nightly ritual that perfectly encapsulates how thought-through every part of this event was.

Also, they gave us money to tip the hotel cleaning staff. I left $10 on the bed every morning. And they deserved every last cent.

Glass

Glass was everywhere throughout our week: windows, hot sauce, water bottles. Mythreya and I visited HHMI's Janelia Research Campus as our STS field trip (see below). And nothing quite screams luxury like glass.

It was strange to be around so much glass. It felt like I was somehow always outside, even as my body itched from being stuck in the hotel most days. It also felt like I was always being watched, which I guess was somewhat true, given the cameras.

Every night, I closed the curtains almost all the way, letting the gentle morning sunlight nudge me awake. In the day, I looked outside, wondering if anyone could relate to how I was feeling in that moment.

Ping Pong

The weekend before we left for D.C., I slept over at Mohit's house with a few others and we made ratatouille. He gave us fortune cookies from Chinese takeout he'd ordered the other night. It made me smile: "Next week will bring you a sense of accomplishment."

Saturday night marked the end of panel judging. No words can capture how stimulated and helpless I had felt after each of 6 appointments. And it was done.

We headed down to Spin D.C. for a night of bar food and the second annual STS ping pong tournament. I had been randomly paired with Ella, and we were eliminated in the first round. But because Claire decided not to play, I was revived and paired with Henry for a second shot in the bracket.

I practiced a bit of ping pong that morning with Mythreya on the mini table they had in the lounge, and that was probably 50% of my lifelong play time. Did I get carried by Henry to win this tournament? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. Did I play better than expected? Honestly, yeah!

I felt accomplished--and then it started to creep up on me. I feared I had used up the good luck from my fortune cookie. The silly thought made me laugh, but part of me took it seriously.

Superstition is a weird subject for me. I mostly ignore it day-to-day. But with so much on the line, I found myself drawn to the fortune which remains embedded between my phone and its case, or the trinkets I carried around in my pocket.

Khan Academy

Valentine's day marked a turning point for me. The first day of USATE 2026. It's also the day I gave up on studying for STS.

When I got the call that named me a finalist on the 20th of January, I was relieved. Surely, this was it, right? There would be celebration, and then everyone would move on. Done worrying about colleges, done competing, I could already feel myself tuning out the noise.

But when it really came to it, "top 40 in the nation" didn't feel like enough (ha--what a terrifying thing it is to raise the bar). So on the 21st, I made a decision to study intensely: Flashcards, Khan Academy, spreadsheets, the works.

This commitment lasted exactly 24 days. It actually shocked me that I couldn't bring myself to do it any longer. I spent the next three weeks hanging out with friends, completing required tasks, and only occasionally googling things as questions popped up in my mind. I would tell people I was "getting in the right headspace," but really I think I was holding back growing panic.

The Scientific Method

Every single name in the top 10 surprised me.

That's not to say it was undeserved by any stretch; I think anyone in the top 40 would have made sense in the top 10. But seeing it called out loud, watching all of our uncertainty collapse into one simple list like a March Madness bracket, that was weird.

For hours, Mythreya and I had discussed many theories on how judging works. I won't bore you with them: they were all wrong. Literally every indicator of placement we hypothesized was way off. Yikes.

I mean this sincerely: I thought I failed panel judging. It was weighing down on me like a breezeblock, and hearing my name called for 2nd place hit me like one.

Certainty

I do think I've become less certain over the last year. Perhaps it's all of the change: graduation, adulthood, college. Maybe maturity is about becoming less stubborn in my ways. Either way, it's pretty terrifying to be a little unsure all the time. But maybe it makes me a better scholar.

There's nothing quite like the release of having all this behind me. Now I get to do the things I thought I'd get to do in January, before this whole "you're a finalist" stuff. Like write this blog.