<p>Eagle and Gold awards help greatly with scholarships as well since they generally involve many hours of genuine community service and leadership.</p>
<p>A local women’s group gives out several service-based scholarships to senior girls each year. At last year’s presentation, a short biography was read about each girl and I was amazed at the number of Girl Scouts - probably 2/3 of the recipients were current Girl Scouts.</p>
<p>I have heard that the Elks are no longer offering Eagle/Gold Award scholarships - they are changing focus to “youth” scholarships.</p>
<p>My son just made Eagle. His Scoutmaster told us his son, who is in his 30’s, got his job because it came down to 2 candidates, and his son had “Eagle Scout” under personal/other on his resume. The employer was impressed.</p>
<p>I think Eagle is probably the perfect EC for college admissions. It shows depth of commitment, because it takes years; leadership, because leadership positions are required; and community service. </p>
<p>It won’t make up for a weak transcript; but it definitely strengthens a candidate who academically fits a school’s profile.</p>
<p>On that list of Eagle Scout #'s (50,000 per year), I wonder how many of those are top 20% of their class and have 2000+ on their SAT’s? There are 4 Eagles I know of in my son’s class of 350 kids; but he’s the only one in National Honor Society. Then again, my son was hoping Eagle would be his “ace in the hole.” He went to an interview with a selective LAC and the adcom told him, “Gee, you’re the third Eagle I’ve seen today!” So much for that ace…</p>
<p>I wonder how Girl Scouts could promote their Gold award so it would have more public awareness?</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate, but while the highest award in Boy Scouts has always been the Eagle, the highest award in Girl Scouts has changed names over the years - Golden Eaglet, Curved Bar, First Class, and finally Gold. It’s been the Gold Award since the early 80s and I certainly hope it stays Gold for a long time to come.</p>
<p>The Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital (metro DC area) has get-togethers throughout the ac. yr. for girls who have already earned their award and those GA candidates who have their project approved and in progress. Even if a girl earns her Gold Award in the early years of hs, she will be invited to these networking opps until she graduates from high school. Women who are successful in a range of career fields intermingle with the girls at these events. </p>
<p>There are also 10 Gold Award scholarships offered to graduating srs for the area. Additionally, there are summer internships that are offered by firms of various members of the GSCNC Board.</p>
<p>My D said that one college interview focused mostly on her Gold Award and her 13 years of Girl Scout membership. The other interviews touched on it but not to the same extent.</p>
<p>token, My son has several fellow Eagle Scout and Gold award friends at Williams, so many in fact that we believe it must be a positive factor in admissions there. I think whole scouting ethos fits well with Williams’ outdoorsy, active personality. My son has participated in many Outing Club activities including a memorable winter camping trip in New Hampshire and an incredible two weeks in the Grand Canyon over spring break.</p>
<p>I have posted this before so please bear with me if I repeat. The admissions person who gave the talk at the information session we attended at the University of Michigan specifically cited Eagle rank as being the “perfect EC.” She said it showed so many positive characteristics that admissions committees are looking for: determination, character, community service, progression, focus, organization, leadership etc, etc.</p>
<p>The down side of scouting is the attention lately on the organization’s unfortunate anti-gay stance. This did come up a couple of times during my son’s interview so it’s a good idea to “be prepared.”</p>
<p>My son’s scouting experiences in three countries were phenomenally formative and certainly diverse. They figured widely in his essays and conversation topics and, I think, will continue to serve him well as he applies for internships, jobs and (eventually) graduate school.</p>
<p>momrath: I also wondered whether at liberal schools, Eagle Scout could actually hurt you. My son was waitlisted at a match school and rejected at a “reach” school (he had the stats, but the school had a low acceptance rate ). Eagle Scout definitely helped one of my son’s friends. He was a mediocre student in high school and actually received several scholarships from colleges. My son is currently a freshman at Rensselaer and out of 1900 freshman, 67 are Eagle Scouts, so it was definitely not a unique extra curricular activity there. In fact, the first young man we met on campus was also an Eagle Scout.</p>
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<p>I wondered this, too. Then I decided that I didn’t care. It’s just one more thing I can’t control.</p>
<p>WashDad: You are so correct - things happen for a reason. Actually, he is at the perfect school for his interests and would likely be miserable at the other schools. But, just wanted to point out that Eagle Scout is not necessarily the ticket for admissions in this competitive environment.</p>
<p>No, in this competitive environment the “ticket for admissions” seems like the elusive Golden Ticket of Charile & The Chocolate Factory! Or maybe just to us obsessed CC parents…</p>
<p>A distinction earned by 40,000 boys a year would not be a strong ticket to admission at a highly selective school, which is why I asked about the numbers. Plenty of colleges think, as I think, that Eagle rank in Scouting is a fine extracurricular activity, but it’s not a tip factor at the most selective schools.</p>
<p>It matters to fellow Eagle Scouts. It’s a fraternity that symbolizes a disciplined youth. When all the other kids were out having fun, these youths were providing service to their communities.</p>
<p>Just curious about those of you who have Eagles: how old were they when they earned the award? I was an Eagle more years ago than I’d care to admit, but in our troop, most kids were pretty much finished with Boy Scouts by the time they hit 16. It was pretty much an activity for younger adolescents.</p>
<p>Funny, as I write this I think of a side note. The Scouts held a dinner that paired community leaders with Eagle scouts. My “partner” was the president of what’s now a top-25 research university where I ended up as an undergrad. The two things I remember are: a) his driver was a more interesting conversationalist than he was; b) it would never have dawned on me that this could be an admissions tip . . . ah simpler times.</p>
<p>My daughter earned her Gold Award as a rising sophomore. The majority of girls in her troop earned theirs sometime during jr and sr yr.</p>
<p>It seems to be soph through sr in my son’s BSA troop. When we were interviewing troops when he was bridging, the scoutmaster of this troop said it’s easier to get the boys to finish the Eagle before the 3Gs kick in. These would be Gas (driving), Grades (school gets more demanding as hs progresses) and Girls (self-explanatory). Of course there are always those scouts wrapping up their project the week before the 18th birthday!</p>
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<p>There are more valedictorians than Eagle Scouts every year, and I would guess (based on my personal experience with Eagles) that no more than 10% of them are applying to “selective” colleges. So, in some sense, Eagle Scout would stand out as unusual far more than Valedictorian. I’m just making this up here, but it might stand out even more since “Valedictorian” is just another way of saying “good grades” which the GPA/ranking measures more directly. Since Eagle Scout is something done on the boy’s own, and is not part of the school incentive system, it says different things about a person than doing well in class.</p>
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<p>The average boy earns his Eagle (if he earns it at all) about a month before his 18th birthday. In my experience, YMMV. Most boys become less active at 14 or so, tending to show up for meetings only sporadically and only participating in the most interesting outings. A lot of boys will slack off for a year or two before becoming active again at 16 or 17 when they realize how much is left to do. Boys in troops or crews with active outdoor programs usually stay more active than car-camping younger-Scout oriented units. </p>
<p>My older son is a 17-year-old Eagle who is receiving his fourth Palm this Friday (there goes that bragging again). For reasons I cannot explain, he gets as much fun out of acting as mentor for the younger scouts as he does in doing things for himself. Since he can be pretty self-centered, this surprises me and gives me hope for humanity. Anyway, when Junior earned his Eagle at a young 16, he was the youngest Eagle in our troop’s 7-year history. He was also the first to stick around after making Eagle (some boys treat earning the distinction as their graduation point from Scouting) and continue to work on Palms.</p>
<p>There are boys (some coming from troops with a reputation of being “Eagle mills”) who make Eagle at 14, or even “old 13,” but that is VERY unusual. I’ve been an Assistant Scoutmaster for seven years and the youngest Eagle I’ve personally worked with completed his achievement at 15.</p>
<p>Does older scout retention depend on the size of the troop? The troops in our area are all quite large so there are a lot of older hs’ers who stick around after Eagle to see their buddies who they might not bump into otherwise. </p>
<p>The Scoutmaster who just retired had a son who earned 51 merit badges and also 6 Palms. There are a lot of younger boys who admire this Eagle Scout and now want to beat his record. This boy is now a plebe at West Point.</p>
<p>In my son’s troop all the boys that have gotten Eagle are just shy of 18, some of them (yes, including my son) turn in their paperwork the day before their 18th birthday. We have a young troop, one that had died and then been resurrected when my son crossed over to Boy Scouts with the new Scoutmaster’s son. So, he is the third Eagle for the troop, but four more followed within a year, all seniors in High School. And once they get that Eagle, they were pretty much done with Scouts, except for personal favorite events.</p>
<p>My daughter got her Gold as a junior. There were only four girls left in the troop at this stage. We finished off the year - and the troop - with a 4 week trip to Europe (Girl Scouts Our Chalet in Switzerland and several other countries also) that was several years in the planning and totally paid for through several years of fundraising. It is hard to keep kids in Scouts once they hit high school - not only are they so busy but there is the ‘not cool’ factor. DD and her BFF both love Girl Scouts and do not care about ‘cool’ and were always active leaders at activities once they were too old to be participants. The trip was a good incentive to stay in Scouts and the kids that thought scouts ‘not cool’ thought the trip sounded very cool indeed.</p>
<p>My oldest son is 17 and will be getting his Eagle just a few months before he turns 18. he fits the description perfectly “less active at 14 or so, tending to show up for meetings only sporadically and only participating in the most interesting outings. A lot of boys will slack off for a year or two before becoming active again at 16 or 17 when they realize how much is left to do.”</p>
<p>My younger son turned 13 in July and became a Life scout shortly thereafter. He definitely did not attend an “Eagle mill” troop, since we have moved several times in the past two years and he has belonged to four different troops since becoming a Boy Scout. He is just more motivated and more interested. Both his scoutmaster and his parents do not believe that there is any benefit to being an early Eagle – so we are slowing him down with leadership responsibilities and a significant project. His goal (and ours for him) is for him to Eagle before starting 9th grade. He plans to continue to be active in Scouts and already participates in many Venture activities and is on the Leadership Executive Committee for OA. (pledged brotherhood last spring)</p>