<p>This is my first post... My son is a Class of 2014 student in a selective honors program at a Baltimore-area Catholic high school. Here is his background:</p>
<ul>
<li>A- (i.e., 91) overall average with all Honors or AP courses; Honor Roll all semesters.
-German Honor Society</li>
<li>221 score on SAT/NMSQT</li>
<li>Extracurriculars - Mock Trial Team (state-wide competition) (3 years, named a County-wide "all-star" last year), Its Academic Team (selected to 3-person TV competition team for past 2 years), Theatre, Boy Scouts (currently a Life Scout) and a peer minister for 3 years at his local Catholic parish.</li>
</ul>
<p>He is currently interested in Canisus, Villanova, St. Joseph's and Syracuse and he sees Brown as his "stretch" school. </p>
<p>While I have seen a lot of discussion about the impact of EC's, I haven't seen much on what impact, if any, earning Eagle Scout has on college chances these days, especially in the case of a "stretch" school or in connection with scholarships opportunities.</p>
<p>We're just getting into this whole process and any feedback would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>It’s probably hard to say, but my son was accepted to Wash U, which was a definite reach for him, and I think the Eagle Scout rank helped. My son’s SAT score matches your son’s almost exactly!</p>
<p>I would encourage your son to pursue his Eagle Scout rank just for the experience of it! My son learned SO much from doing it. He built a 300-foot long boardwalk in a local park. He had to work with the town, figure out construction details, order materials, coordinate shipment, recruit volunteers, work with power tools, etc., etc. There is a LOT of paperwork involved, so don’t underestimate the time required. Even after he finished the actual project, he had to do a LOT of work on the report.</p>
<p>My nephew is just getting final approval of his Eagle Scout rank, too late to claim it on apps. Of course, I TOLD him to budget lots of time. Now he understands why! I had to bite my tongue not to say, “I told you so!” when he was going on and on about how long everything took.</p>
<p>Absolutely. It is an EC that demonstrates commitment, responsibility and leadership. My son was told by a school rep at an admissions session that it is definitely a plus. My son included a brief description of his Eagle Project in the additional info area of the Common App. If you use the search function for these forums you will find a number of posts about it.</p>
<p>My D1 earned the Girl Scout Gold Award (equivalent on the GS side). I don’t know that it made a difference in her admissions, but I think it may have helped bump up her merit aid. The LAC she went to published general guidelines for the different levels of merit awards. Her SAT scores and grades were in one category, but she received the next category up of merit awards (yay! It saved me about $30,000 total over four years!). Now she did have some other good ECs – captain of a sports team, top 5 finish twice in state speech competition, and she spoke an unusual language. But I still think it helped a lot.</p>
<p>My brother is an Eagle scout. The top 10 LAC where he is a sophomore seems to value that highly. They publish the # of Eagle scouts admitted every year as part of their annual admissions brochure. For him, the school was an incredible reach because his grades were not great. He thinks he got in partly because of the scouting.</p>
<p>My son got his Eagle not too long ago and I believe it definitely helped him get an early notification of several acceptances. One Eagle scout in our troop goes to RIT and reported that there are 7 Eagles on his floor alone and one of them is his roommate. </p>
<p>I also heard from a parent that attended an info session at Cornell that the Dean of Admissions stated that they admit ALL Eagle Scouts. That may be a bit overstated but I’m convinced it definitely helped us.</p>