A friend who has his BS, MS and PHD from MIT says that he still puts “Eagle Scout” on his resume. He is 58.
Our son is an Eagle and achieved it one month before aging out. I think the ES award really helped him.
He was in a huge troop that was service oriented. They repaired trails, fences, corrals, cooking weekly homeless meals, putting up thousands of flags at our local “National” cemeteries for years. I’m sure they put in a minimum of 500 hours each. Not to mention camping all over the U.S.
His project turned out to be huge, but it was something he really wanted to do. Because of the scope of the project, and all of the helpers he had, it garnered him tons of accolades from the community. I’m sure the Principal mentioned it in the LORs, as well as his coaches, and scout leaders.
DS did win the NM award and had great stats. I believe the ES award got him into the tough schools: he was ranked #5 at his school and he got in to schools that none of the other top-ranked kids could get into.
We did have a younger student get his Eagle in “middle” school. The mother pulled him out of public school and home schooled him in order work on his badges. We all felt sorry for him because he really needed to work on his social skills and keeping friends; I don’t think either of them realized that it wasn’t a race. Once he achieved Eagle, it didn’t make him more popular or increase his friendships; the kids tried really hard to include this pompous kid but he and his mother made it really tough.
Interesting perspective @aunt_bea Not all ECs are equivalent. For your son, ES was truly reflective of attributes that colleges desired. For the other kid, it was akin to Sauron’s ring of power.
I’m not sure that it helped my son. I don’t think that it helped for the elite schools since so many other factors are in play and there are so many exceptional applicants. Maybe for the military academies it may make some difference in getting a congressional nomination.