If you're applying to college in the Early Decision (ED) or Early Action (EA) rounds, admissions officers want to see you putting your absolute best foot forward. But because the deadlines are earlier, you can only put things you’ve already won on your application. Anything you’re still working on is, for now, invisible - unless you know the right tricks to tell the admissions officer what amazing accolades you still have lined up.
For students committing to a STEM research pathway, the timing for ED can be very awkward. Most regional science fairs run January to March. ISEF doesn’t happen until May. Regeneron STS Scholars aren't announced until January. So by the time most of this year's research results come in, your ED decisions will have already come out - and the hundreds of hours you spent gathering data and preparing for judging at your fair might go to waste unless presented intelligently.
This is a guide for students applying to ED, EA, or ED2 schools who have done research, science fair, or gotten other STEM awards (anything from a regional fair placement, recognition in an adjacent competition like Conrad Challenge, or even an ISEF Grand Award). It is also a guide on what to do if you still have awards coming up but which won’t come in time for your early applications.
Why Early Decision Changes the Picture
Put yourself for a second into the shoes of an admissions officer (AO) reading ED files in November. Every applicant in the ED round is, on average, stronger and much more committed to the university they’re applying to. The admissions officers here are reading carefully for every signal they have that the student deserves a place at their university - but the information they have effectively only includes anything done up to the end of Junior year and the first few weeks of senior year.
This really means two things:
Your Junior Year Results Are Your Headline
Whatever you achieved in spring 2026 - regional, state, ISEF - is the most credible and most recent evidence that you can show to an AO that you’re really as good as you say you are. These results should be the most impressive and come at the very top of your application - you don’t want to give them the impression that you peaked in ninth grade!
Anything You’re Currently Doing Should Be Visible
You can't list an award you haven't won yet, but you can make it clear that your research efforts are still ongoing and that you're heading into another competition season in your senior year. That means that your summer research can go onto your application.
AOs hate it when students drop all the extracurriculars they were doing the moment they enter senior year - it gives them the impression that you weren’t actually really committed to it, and that you were only doing it for your college admissions. Show them that you’re still participating because you truly love STEM research.
Step One: Audit What You Actually Have
Before touching the Common App, sort everything you've done into three piles.
Confirmed results. Awards you've already received, with a name, level, date, and how selective it was. This is how you fill out your Honors list in the Common App academic section.
Work in progress. Research you're still gathering data for. Papers you’ve submitted for publication but still under review. Projects you're entering into the 2027 fair season, a Regeneron STS application you're about to submit. Put these in Activities and, where relevant, Additional Information to provide more detail on what's still ongoing.
Things that aren't really awards. Participation certificates, "honorable mention" in a school fair, a nonselective summer program you were accepted to. You have to be very honest with yourself here - if it doesn’t sound impressive (with or without context), you probably don’t want to include it in a very high place on your application.
Most students discover at this point that they have fewer confirmed results than they thought, and more work in progress. That's fine. Present what you already have as your headline results, and what you’re still working on as evidence in the story you want to tell in your application.
Honors: Lead With Your Strongest Confirmed Result
You get five Honors slots, 100 characters each, plus a grade level and a recognition level (School, State/Regional, National, International) for each honor you want to put in. For research students, this is where an AO sees external, verified recognition that lets them set apart kids who just claim to do ‘research’ versus the ones who actually made groundbreaking scientific progress in high school.
Your rule of thumb: every award you put in here should be written so that an AO who has never heard of your competition knows (a) what you won, (b) how competitive it was, and (c) where you rank relative to your peers.
Compare these:
"Science fair winner" - tells them nothing. There are thousands of science fairs in the world.
"1st Place & Best of Fair, California Science and Engineering Fair 2026; advanced to Regeneron ISEF" - tells them you won the whole thing and qualified for ISEF.
"2nd Place Grand Award, Biochemistry, Regeneron ISEF 2026 (1,700+ finalists, 60+ countries)" - tells them you're one of the best young researchers in the world.
A few things to carefully check when you’re filling out your application:
Spell out full details. Most AOs are not STEM graduates and didn’t do science fairs themselves. Don’t assume that they know what TECA or BEHA stand for.
Pick the right level. ISEF is International. Your state fair is State/Regional. An award from a school-level fair is a school-level honor.
Use any spare characters you have to give more details on how selective the award was. If you have the room to say that you were only "1 of 3 selected from [State] Science Fair", you should!
Order your honors from most to least impressive. AOs may pay the most attention to the first three honors you put in your list. Ideally, the most impressive should be the most recent (i.e., something you won when you were in junior year, not sophomore or freshman)
And one ED-specific rule: never list a pending result in Honors. "STS Scholar (results pending)" or "ISEF 2027 (expected)" costs you a huge amount of credibility. If it hasn't happened yet, you cannot put it in your honors list - but keep reading below to hear where you can use it.
I’ve previously written a full breakdown of this in our guide on how to frame your ISEF results for college apps. Check that out for more details!
Activities: Show That the Research Is Still Moving
The Activities entry for your research isn’t for awards (remember, that already appeared in your honors list). It's a description of the work you actually did. For ED applicants, this is how you show that you’ve continued your research journey and didn’t stop just because you already won a medal last year.
Quantify everything and be specific. Hours per week, weeks per year, months on the project, samples, participants, lines of code. Don’t describe your work as ‘Did bio research’, instead say ‘I’m synthesising novel bacteriophages to treat MRSA in a UNC wet lab’. In the absence of an award, these details are what give you credibility.
Show progression. "Started X, expanded to Y, now doing Z." You want to show the AO that you’re not just running in place, and you’re actually using your brain and agency to keep developing your work. Show your understanding of the scientific method.
Name what's next, factually. "Extending project for 2027 fair season; manuscript in preparation" tells the AO the story isn't over. "Aiming to win ISEF 2027" is just padding.
If two sections say the same thing, you've wasted a slot. Any past award you’ve already won goes in the Honors list. The work you’re still doing goes in Activities.
Additional Information, Supplements, and Recommendations
With only 300 words in Additional Information, spend them on context the AO needs to read your results correctly. The Common App specifically warns against using this section to just rehash information that you already put elsewhere, so don’t just repeat yourself. Things you actually should include here are:
Senior year competitions you've already entered. One factual sentence is enough: "I have submitted my project to Regeneron STS; Scholars are announced in January."
Publications and conferences. Papers under review, accepted, or published, and anywhere you've presented.
Beyond the Common App, check your ED school's own portal. A few schools like Yale and Columbia accept research abstracts or supplements, and some allow an optional letter of recommendation from an additional mentor not from your school - a great opportunity for you to use your connections from your research journey. If your ED school does allow you to submit one, ask your research mentor now - not in the last week of October.
After You Submit: Results Keep Coming
The admissions process doesn't end on November 1st. Here's roughly how the year plays out for a student applying to college this year with real STEM chops:
When | What happens |
|---|---|
November 1 (some schools November 15) | ED1 deadline |
Mid-November | Regeneron STS application deadline (seniors) |
Mid-December | ED1 decisions: admit, deny, or defer |
Early January | ED2 and Regular Decision deadlines; STS Scholars announced |
February - April | Regional and state science fairs |
May 8-14, 2027 | Regeneron ISEF 2027, Los Angeles |
If you're admitted in December, congratulations - keep competing anyway, because you're doing this for the value of the research and potential prizes.
If you're deferred or waitlisted, new results become some of the most useful things you can send as part of your Letter of Continuing Interest (LOCI). Getting announced as an STS Scholar in January, or winning a regional fair in February and qualifying for ISEF, is exactly the kind of fresh, externally verified evidence that you should be leading your LOCI with.
And if you're applying ED2, your application goes in during early January, so any awards that you get between now and then, like STS results, can go straight into your honors list too.
Early Decision & Research: The Bottom Line
ED rewards students who present themselves and their awards clearly, confidently, and honestly. Put your best awards at the top of your Honors list, describe your research commitments as ongoing, give the AO the context they need to properly understand how talented you really are, and have a clear plan for how you’re going to update the school when new results come in.
The students who get the most out of ED aren't always the ones with the biggest awards. They're the ones whose applications make it easy for an AO to understand exactly how good they really are.
Our team at ScienceFair.io has advised hundreds of students through this exact process. If you're four weeks out from your ED deadline and not sure your research is coming across properly, come talk to us.
Want Extra Help Before Your ED Deadline?
ScienceFair pairs you with a 1:1 coach who has competed and won at the national and international level, backed by a library of real award-winning ISEF posters, masterclasses, and research mentorship through our partnership with Indigo Research.
Schedule a call with our academic advisors, and we'll help you make sure your research gets the credit it deserves.
