<p>HPPUCK35, my daughter’s friend still was submitting paperwork a couple days before his 18th birthday. He even missed performing in a play that he had committed to in order to work on it, but the scoutmaster told him it was still too late. Why the boy cut it so close I will never know. The Girl Scouts give you until October of your senior year to finish the Gold. I don’t think it is fair that the Boy Scouts only have until their 18th birthday. Some scouts are born the beginning of the year and have less time–late birthdays have a greater advantage. I understand that these are the rules, but it never made sense to me-after all, these scouts are all in the same grade at school. Thanks for explaining about the"lone scout" situation. I was just trying to think of different ways to work this out for him.</p>
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How is that any more fair, though? S would have had 7-1/2 months less time than he did (although he was actually approved by September of senior year). Either way, some people will have had more time than others.</p>
<p>Actually, the Girl Scout Gold Award deadline, at least in Iowa, is Sept. 30 after high school graduation. Time is equal as long as the girls start at the same time, because they start at the beginning of a school year, not when they turn a certain age. </p>
<p>So, if a girl becomes a girl scout at the beginning of 1st grade, no matter what age she is then, and stays in to do her Gold Award, she will have 12 school years, plus the summer and September after high school graduation to be a girl scout. If that was a boy, he would have to be done at 18 and boys turn 18 and different times during the school year.</p>
<p>dramamama27; I believe that that rules my district follow are the universal set. You have until your 18th birthday. Don’t know why the scoutmaster would have his own modified set. In my troop, however, if you wait until the last moment, you (or your parents) are the one to drive the 40 miles to the council office to deliver the paperwork, not me.</p>
<p>Whatever date you set as the deadline, it is arbitrary. However, once set it is there for all to see. And no matter what date you set, there will be those that try to slide by at the last minute. Some make it, some don’t. I was on my son’s case to get his paperwork all done and turned in a month before the deadline.</p>
<p>Some scouts are born the beginning of the year and have less time–late birthdays have a greater advantage</p>
<p>i do not know the stats, but i would bet that most scouts who receive the rank of Eagle do so before they turn 16, much less 18. Any scout pushing the 18 year old limit has procrastinated for quite some time.</p>
<p>Being an Eagle Scout was instrumental in my son getting his job after graduation.</p>
<p>Any scout pushing the 18 year old limit has procrastinated for quite some time.</p>
<p>What do you mean by procrastinated? My son wasn’t a cub scout or a webelo and or any of those things and joined the actual Scouts a year after the age most of them start. He had a wonderful troop that produced a lot of Eagles (and I wouldn’t call them a “factory” - just a highly motivating and supportive leadership) and he worked steadily on the requirements, but finished just short of his 18th birthday also. Of the other boys in his ceremony, one was a year younger and one was insanely young - I think he was the youngest you can get it, what, 14 or 15? My son had a lot of other things going on but he started and finished his project and got just as much out of it as someone who did it years earlier.</p>
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This may differ in different places, but around here 16-year-old Eagles are quite unusual, and some troops even discourage doing it that quickly. But I guess it’s relatively common for kids to finish when they are juniors in high school, or perhaps the summer after junior year, and I suppose some of those kids are still 16. But as noted above, the deadline is age 18, even if you are turning 18 in December of your senior year.</p>
<p>As for the kid who was “rejected because of the timeline,” this can happen if he still needs to complete a merit badge with a requirement that takes 90 days to do, and he hasn’t begun that requirement 90 days before his 18th birthday. There is no way to fix that problem.</p>
<p>I’m sure that there will be some disagreements, but IMO doing the Eagle service project properly (i.e., without undue parental or adult intervention) takes a maturity level that very few kids under the age of 16 would have.</p>
<p>Regarding the timeline, any scout who is serious about making Eagle would/should have had an Eagle advisor that can help to check the timeline and remind the scouts when they need to get certain things done. No need to get a 17 YO kid’s hopes up when there’s no way that they can possibly finish on time.</p>
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This reminds me of a kid who was working on the “Personal Management” merit badge. One of the requirements was to fill out a record of all of the kid’s income and expenditures over some period (a month?). This kid brought me the record–and it was all zeroes. He had received no money, and hadn’t really spent any, either. I couldn’t reject the work, but I do tell other kids that it’s better to leave that particular merit badge until they are a little older.</p>
<p>Hunt, my experience is the same. I was an Advancement Chairman for my son’s troop for several years- Los Angeles area. None of our Eagle Scouts completed the rank before age 16. We only had one or two reach Eagle each year, and we had a troop of 60 Scouts. Senior year in high school was the most common, although a few made it as a Junior. Most of the kids never stayed in Scouts all through high school- they were often involved in sports or other activities that made it too hard to give it the time required. </p>
<p>Kids have to make choices- they usually can’t do everything and have to drop the things that aren’t as valuable to them for one reason or another. I think making these kinds of choices are part of growing up, and I’d never want a boy to continue in Scouting just because he started, and felt he had to “finish.”
I also disagree with the poster who said that seeing “Life Scout” on an college application was somehow a negative. Why? It’s no more a negative than a boy who plays baseball for a couple of years and then changes to tennis, or whatever. High school is the time to find your passion, and if you discover that Scouts isn’t it after a few years, there’s nothing wrong with that.</p>
<p>My troop did not have any Eagle scouts younger than 17. Some other troops in town had 15 (and maybe even a few 14) year old Eagle Scouts. Having met some of the young Eagle scouts, I was not impressed. They acted their age and not something I expected from an Eagle scout. Those troops had the reputation as “Eagle factories”.</p>
<p>Those same troops would hold “merit badge days” where you could earn several merit badges in a day. I was asked to help with one such day and turned down the request. I have always believed that you were to learn the material for the long haul and not just to “pass the quiz”. As scoutmaster, I would discourage the members of my troop from attending those days.</p>
<p>So, back to the original question: does having the Eagle rank help with a college app? IMHO, yes; if it “fits” well with the rest of the package. It may be hard for a college admissions person (which I am not) to determine if it truely does “fit”. Therefore, it probably does help, but maybe not as much as it could if it weren’t for those “Eagle factory troops”.</p>
<p>My son got his eagle scout 1 day before his 18th! IMO, it did help as it was a project that took a lot of coordination with multiple people and organizations. I truly believe he didn’t have the maturity to carry it out in previous years without help from mom and dad. I can truly say he did it on his own and I was very proud of him and he was proud of himself. He asked the director of the non-profit he did the project for write a letter of recommendation which I feel really helped.</p>
<p>[Eagle</a> Scouts](<a href=“http://www.scouting.org/about/factsheets/eaglescouts.aspx]Eagle”>http://www.scouting.org/about/factsheets/eaglescouts.aspx)</p>
<p>i found this on the net. it shows the average age is 17.
my son finished everything for his Eagle 2 weeks before his 18th birthday. he was a Life scout for 3 years. He procrastinated big time. All other Eagle Scouts that I know who got their Eagle at the last minute procrastinated as well. It is very easy to be Eagle at age 15 if you go to scout meetings and advance in the normal timeline.</p>
<p>S1 got additional points for his Eagle Scout award from point-based admissions schools like UCSD; son number two received a college acceptance letter that specifically discussed his Eagle Scout award.</p>
<p>I’m glad they got it done</p>
<p>A boy can become a Scout at age 10 if he has finished fifth grade (or has the Arrow of Light). He can become a tenderfoot in 30 days. He has to do a lot of activities to become Second Class and First Class, but in a very active troop he can do this in a year. So he could potentially be First Class at age 11. He can become Star 4 months after that, Life six months after that, and Eagle six months after that. So you could have a 13-year old Eagle Scout, and I think there have been some–certainly some who were 14.</p>
<p>But around here, this isn’t typical. First of all, most boys are 11 when they start, and a lot of them don’t really get going until the fall of the 6th grade year. A lot of them take a couple of years to achieve First Class, and then about a year each for Star, Life, and Eagle. So they are 16 or 17 when they become Eagle. I also think if a boy is too young, it’s hard for him to get the full benefit of the activities and, especially, the leadership. Occasionally, though, there is a boy who is unstoppable.</p>
<p>I know at least one scout in my sons troop who became an Eagle Scout when he was 13 and a few at age 14. My oldest son was Eagle 3 months before he turned 16 after being a Life Scout for 2 years. My younger son, who will be 15 next month, has been a Life for 2 years. He has served as a patrol leader, troop guide, assistant senior patrol leader and senior patrol leader of a 100 scouts troop. When he went to NYLT this Spring, he was one of the youngest being a SPL.
I agree that the eagle service project does require some maturity and time management skills. S2 really enjoys scouting and the leadership roles so we are letting him to take time to get his Eagle.</p>
<p>sunnydayfun, I commend your son if he was able to be a successful senior patrol leader of a large troop at age 14. I would say that not many boys have the maturity to truly lead a boy-led troop at that age. The troop I work with has a young SPL now (because there was a gap in recruiting a few years back, and there are no older boys who can do it), and it’s a real challenge. He’s growing up fast.</p>
<p>Those of you who have eagle scouts or the equivalent GS achievement 18 and older should look at working at Philmont scout ranch for a summer job. Great job that is challenging yet fun and you get paid! The pay is decent as there is no place to spend money. S worked there for 3 summers.</p>
<p>Hunt-My S did well and so did other 14-years-old scouts elected as SPL in his troop. There were scouts even elected for two terms in a row for SPL at age 14 to 15. My S likes to be the SPL so much and he wants to run it again at next term. The current SPL is 14 and the one before my son’s term who was either 13 or young 14 at the time was a little immature. The troop typically has the 8th or 9th graders running for the SPL. They are young and as a matter of fact the majority of active scouts are between age 11 and 16. I wish the older scouts were more active in the troop. They are busy with school, sports, EC, learning to drive, working, dating, etc and don’t put scouting as a priority.IMO.</p>