eagle scout essay

Eagle Scout College Essay Samples And Tips For Admission

One of the most dreaded parts of applying to colleges and universities are the supplemental essays. As an Eagle or Life Scout, you might be wondering how best to write about your Scouting experience — or maybe whether you should even include it at all (You should 🙂 ).

Worry no longer! In this article, we’ll be covering some of the best ways to make your Scouting experience shine on application essays and even the Common App. Plus, I’ve also pulled together some fantastic example essay passages so you can get a feel for the writing style of great college applications.

How Should You Write An Eagle Scout College Application Essay? When writing about your Scouting experience on a college application essay, your main goal should be to tell a story about personal growth. The essay should be free of acronyms and easily understandable. The best topics to write about, for most scouts, are their unique outdoor experiences, troop leadership roles, and Eagle Scout service project.

However, there’s a lot more that goes into a successful application! Carefully read the section below to learn the best methods of structuring your application essay. Then, we’ll be jumping into some real-life examples of the best ways you could write about your Scouting experience to really make your application stand out to an admissions committee!

How to Structure a College Admissions Essay

Do you know the ways your Scouting experience can help you stand out on a college application ? If you don’t, I’d highly suggest checking out the linked article! College admissions essays may be the trickiest documents you’ll ever write, as these personal statements require both conciseness and detail. Therefore, use everything you can to get a leg up! Your writing structure will be key to clearly communicating your message.

To create an effective structure, you first need to decide on your essay’s message. What is your main point for the beginning, middle, and end of your essay? Often, effective application essays begin with a story of a personal obstacle, guide your reader to the problem’s unexpected solution, and then end with a description of the lessons you’ve taken away from overcoming the challenge you’ve faced.

The Challenge->Solution->Takeaways structure is also effective when writing informative anecdotes in your essays. Here’s a quick excerpt showing of how I used this structure in one of my actual college application essays:

Challenge: In my freshman year of high school, a classmate and I were tasked with creating a joint presentation detailing the effects of GMOs on the environment. I had prepared my materials beforehand, so, naturally, I was excited to speak. My partner, however, had completely forgotten about the project and hastily began to plan a way out. Solution: After I’d delivered my portion of the presentation, complete with graphics and pie charts, I anxiously stepped aside and began mentally preparing for my partner to get us both laughed out of the room. To my dismay, my partner resourcefully rolled a short but informative Youtube video relating to the subject, and then, in a stroke of genius, improvised a quick activity. In seconds, the entire classroom was gleefully chanting the NATO phonetic alphabet parodied to GMO-related terminology! Takeaways: I was struck, and my B to his A was all it took to convince me that effort is not directly proportional to success. From that moment, I realized that I needed to think less about the work and product itself, and more about the audience that I was delivering my creation to.

I’m sure you have stories like this in your own life as well! In Scouting, maybe you thought you’d be a great leader right away, but later realized you needed to improve your approach. Maybe your path to Eagle had a few twists and turns. Either way, by using this structure, you can better place the reader in your shoes and guide them through an interesting and exciting journey.

Remember, the goal of your admissions essay should be to show as much of your personality to the reader as possible. Tell a story. Let them see you as a unique, endearing individual, and try to get them to like you. By describing a challenge, you show vulnerability and mark yourself as the kind of person who’s able to reflect, learn, and overcome difficulties.

Sample Outline For An Eagle Scouts Admission Essay

Now that you know how to effectively structure your story, it’s time to begin looking at a few essay samples that you can draw on for inspiration. As an Eagle Scout myself, there are 3 main Scouting topics and values I’d recommend writing about in your own application essays.

Each of these three topics demonstrates values that are in high demand by universities. However, even if you don’t choose to write about these topics specifically, it’s still important to come up with a value-packed idea to serve as the core of your essay. I’d recommend watching the following video (8:51) for some great tips on coming up with your own essay idea.

Have a general idea for what you’ll be writing about? Great! Below, I’ll first be covering the best ways to capture your reader’s attention and frame your experiences. Then, with sample essays, I’ll be breaking down some of the best techniques for crafting a structurally-perfect application!

Capturing Your Reader’s Attention With Scouting

Your ‘hook,’ which serves to capture your reader’s attention, should be a concise but intriguing statement that reflects your personality. Hooks can take many different forms and engage the reader through the use of quotes, excamatory statements, or even questions.

Personally, this was the hook I used in one of my own college essays:

“Guten morgan, wie gehts. Ich heiß Cole. Ich bin seibzehn jahre alt.” I hear myself echo as I stand before my German class. Nervous, I mouth a half-smile and try to remain calm. Apprehensively making eye contact with the faces before me, even at a glance I can tell that this room is inhabited by people from all corners of the world. Judging from her defined jawline and shining blond hair, the girl who’s absentmindedly looking away appears to be Russian. The bespectacled boy with the tousled dark hair who wears a badly-translated t-shirt seemed to be distracted as well, reading from what I can only guess to be a Chinese dictionary. Another girl sits beside me, dressed in alternative clothing and sporting a septum piercing; judging from her edgy look, one would never have guessed she was from the suburbs of Rhode Island. Hearing the melody of birds chirping, I glance outside the window. On that beautiful Autumn afternoon in Switzerland, I see snow glistening on the Rhône glacier. It’s an enormous mass of brilliant blue hues, swirled together, filling the space between two gargantuan mountains: the Schwartz Horn and the Eiger. At that moment, a thought crosses my mind: “How on earth did I, just some kid from Hawaii, wind up in a place like this?”

While my introduction isn’t perfectly written, I think it does a solid job of capturing attention and pulling the reader down the page. Your essay should do the same! Keep in mind, my essay was about personal diversity and transitions, so this introduction really catered to my core theme. Your intro should also be informed by your essay’s main idea.

Now for some example hooks! If the focus of your essay is your Scouting experience, some possible hooks might be:

Basically, the point of your hook is to first grab attention and then segway into a significant experience that will continue to intrigue your reader. Tell a story around your experience, then identify a key value that you’ve learned or embodied which will serve as the core of the essay.

In the next section, I’ll teach you to craft a thesis statement based on your core theme!

Eagle Scout Values as a Core Theme

Now that you know the point of your introduction, it’s time to get into the meat of your essay: your core theme. Your core theme should be based around the values that make you, you. Remember, a reader should be able to identify your core focus at least halfway through your essay. The most effective way to do this is with a thesis statement!

It might seem like you don’t need a thesis statement for an admissions essay but having one or two sentences to encapsulate your core theme will ensure that your essay is coherent from start to finish.

Using our examples from earlier, here’s what an effectively phased thesis might sound like:

Remember, your thesis should perfectly suit your essay. Now that you know each of the ingredients for an amazing personal statement, it’s time to review some examples! Most of the experts agree that the best way to write well is to read good writing. Afterward, you’ll be ready to craft your own application and get that “Yes.” 🙂

Eagle Scout College Essay Samples and Examples

Below is a great excerpt from a personal statement that talks about a scout’s journey to Eagle. The writer does a fantastic job explaining the wide-ranging value of merit badges.

The Importance of Merit Badges

It was a long journey from an energetic adolescent to the mature man I am today. With every merit badge earned, I learned a valuable lesson about how to conduct my life. For example, the Personal Management merit badge taught me how to manage a budget. The Family Life badge gave me the skills to pitch in and help my parents run a household. Two trips to West Point Military Academy for Scout jamborees exposed me to cadets who were studying to be US Military officers and made me think about a military career. Source: https://www.collegeessayconfidante.com/sample-essays/

Leadership in Scouting

Leadership means holding yourself to a higher standard and putting your fellow scouts above yourself. In my last six years as a Scout, I have led others in finding their strengths, weaknesses, and encouraged boys to work as a team to accomplish a common goal. I started as an Assistant Patrol Leader and worked my way up to the highest leadership position, Senior Patrol Leader. Source: https://inlikeme.com/leadership-essay-scouts-effort/

Reflecting on How to be a Great Leader

While in Scouting, I took on multiple leadership roles and gradually became more involved in my troop. With those roles comes a great responsibility. Once you become involved and have responsibility, it is up to you how you want people to recognize you. You can be the leader who just points fingers and gives orders, or you can be the leader who teaches others how to do their job, is involved, is supportive and gives rewards when it is appropriate to do so. It may be difficult to do, but a true leader puts others before himself. Source: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/01/14/what-scouting-did-for-me-a-recent-eagle-scout-tells-his-story/ Written by Ryan Eberlie

Your Eagle Scout Service Project

These experiences molded and shaped me. But the most significant experience came from completing my Eagle Project, during which I recorded the oral histories of eight war veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. As I listened to their stories, I learned the meaning of self-sacrifice. The project took 140 hours—longer than a typical Eagle Project, but while I was working on it, I was not thinking about the time I was spending or even whether I would make Eagle if I completed the project. My only focus was on preserving the history of these noble citizens. That is when I understood why I felt no different the night my Scout leaders named me an Eagle Scout. It was because what was inside of me—a commitment to public service and a willingness to sacrifice—had been there all along. Also by Ryan Eberlie

Reading well-reviewed essay samples is something I did when crafting my own personal statement, and it definitely paid off! If you’re looking for more amazing personal statements to draw inspiration from, I’d highly recommend checking out the accepted essay collection from Johns Hopkins university

Now that you know what good writing sounds like, there are only a few more things you need to know to knock your personal statement out of the park! Firstly, try to place yourself in the admission’s officer’s shoes and connect your experience to what’s most relevant to them.

Consider, how will this experience help me at the school I’m applying to? What kinds of students are they really looking for? Have they seen an essay like mine before; is the story I’m telling unique enough? Use these questions to guide your writing, and connect your essay’s conclusion to your future ambitions. This, in itself, is a recipe for success!

Mistakes to Avoid on an Admissions Essay

Now that you’ve learned what to do when writing a college essay, it’s also important to keep in mind a list of things not to do. You’ll definitely want to avoid any cliche’s in your essay, and use impeccable grammar to convey your point. Remember, certain errors can make admissions officers immediately stop considering your application.

While we could spend hours talking about what not to do, I think the video (12:59) below does a great job of covering the most common mistakes students make. By avoiding these traps and improving your writing style by reading successful applications, every university will be dying to admit you!

General Tips To Keep in Mind While Writing Your Own Essay

In closing, here are 8 essential tips that you should keep front of mind when writing your essay. In this article, we’ve gone over a lot, but these points will help you to easily recall what we’ve covered so that you can write an incredible, engaging college essay!

Got it? Awesome! With these tips, not only will you be able to craft an essay that’ll get you into your dream school — you’ll also be able to write competitively to win Eagle Scout Scholarships ! Click the link to check out my painless guide to finding (and winning!) financial opportunities that are exclusive to Eagle Scouts. 🙂

You’ve made it! To thank you for sticking with me to this point, below are a few facts you might consider mentioning to bolster your application essay. Numbers lend credibility to your personal statement and could help to better communicate your accomplishments. Use them if they fit your theme.

At this point, if you’re not 120% sure of what you plan to write about, I’d highly recommend checking out my article on the 7 best skills to highlight on Eagle Scout college applications . If you exhibit these values in your own life, they might be the core idea of your accepted college application essay!

Give yourself a huge pat on the back for reading this far! That kind of persistence is also what helped you to reach Eagle, and likely what’ll get you into the university of your dreams. Wishing you all the best on your applications and beyond. 🙂

I'm constantly writing new content because I believe in Scouts like you! Thanks so much for reading, and for making our world a better place. Until next time, I'm wishing you all the best on your journey to Eagle and beyond!

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Free Eagle Scout Essays and Papers

Eagle Scout Accomplishments

Achieving the rank of Eagle Scout has been one of my greatest accomplishments of my life. Getting my Eagle Scout has given me three great benefits; the first one is many life skills, benefits while applying for a job, and people look up to me as an Eagle Scout. Getting this award has been a great honor and has taught me many of the life skills needed to be successful in today’s modern society. Eagle Scout is the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America. This award is looked very highly of in the

Eagle Scout Statement

a boy scout the very idea to me seem a bit embarrassing. The only reason why I became a boy scout was because my father had heard that Boy Scouts teaches young men discipline and respect so he dragged me to a meeting and signed me. The passion he had for scouts was inconceivable he believed that it will one day help me to become a great man and I had faith in his judgment. So on that very night I looked him straight into his eyes and told him " Dad I promise you I will become a Eagle scout and stick

A True Eagle Scout

person out of the five percent of all Boy Scouts who will become Eagle Scouts. It is a great honor, and you should try to succeed in your goal. However, becoming a true Eagle Scout is not just done by completing the requirements and finishing a project; you also have to display all of the qualities that a true Eagle Scout should exemplify. You have to be able to earn that honor, and through this essay you will learn about all it takes to be an Eagle Scout including the book requirements, the merit

Eagle Scout Quote Analysis

As an Eagle Scout there is a saying that goes, “Once an Eagle, always an Eagle”. That carries certain privileges with it, but also certain responsibilities. As an Eagle Scout, one would never want to do something to tarnish the reputation of themselves or other Eagle Scouts. The same is true for those of us who work in ministry. Whether I like it or not, many people will put me on a pedestal. That means that I need to hold myself to a higher standard than I do anyone else. It is like Paul said in

Personal Narrative: Eagle Scout

Ever since I joined scouting as a Senior Webelo, I wanted to become an Eagle Scout. I started my journey by obtaining my Arrow of Light, then bridged as soon as I could to Troop 0713 located at American Martyr’s church in Manhattan Beach. Now at age 14 and going into tenth grade, I stand on the brink of success regarding my Eagle Scout award after years of hard work and determination. Outside of scouting, I am very involved at various churches around the South Bay area. I have volunteered mostly

Eagle Scout Short Term Goals

I am Jacob Heeter, member of Troop 56, from Knox, PA. I did my Eagle Scout Project making a handicap accessible walkway from the road to the building at Camp Coffman, Cranberry, PA. I have many ambitions after becoming an Eagle Scout, based around short term goals, after graduation, and career choices. My short-term goals will be completed throughout High School. I am taking a lot of Mathematical classes in High School, this year I am taking Statistics and Business Math. Next year I will either

How To Become An Eagle Scout Essay

scoutmaster in front of me, and the audience behind my back, I feel like this accomplishment will not only help me develop as a leader, but also as a person. Becoming an eagle scout is more than a badge and a rank; it is a sense of duty and fulfillment that I have sought for so many years and am finally able to achieve. From Cub Scout to Eagle Scout, like adolescence to adulthood, this momentous occasion symbolizes my entrance into a new world and my readiness to tackle the challenges it has in store for me

Importance Of Eagle Scout

High-school. I achieved the rank of Eagle Scout at the age of six-teen after spending over a decade in the Scouting community. While in Boy Scouts, I served as Chaplains Aid, Patrol Leader, and Troop Guide. In 2014 over the summer, I competed in the HGA Junior Golf Program and placed fourth in player of the year standings for Junior Series which earned me HGA Junior Golf First Team Award. Then, I volunteered at the First Tee of the Greater

The Importance Of Being An Eagle Scout

was being a Boy Scout and attaining the rank of Eagle. Becoming an Eagle Scout was a goal of mine and one of many other people, but only four percent of the people that join Boy Scouts end up earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Starting at Tenderfoot and moving up six ranks to Eagle takes a couple years of hard work. You have to earn a certain number of merit badges, spend many nights camping, and you have to work a lot of service hours. Finally going through Boy Scouts and getting Eagle changed my life

Sam Walton and Wal-Mart

moved from town to town in Missouri. This would traumatize most children but for the Walton boys though it was no big deal. This could be seen when Sam was in 8th grade at Shelbina he became the youngest boy in the state's history to become an Eagle Scout and this was only a start of his many of accomplishments. As Sam Walton grew up he was always an ambitious boy. He attended Hickman High School in Columbia there he played basketball and football, in which he was the starting quarterback for

My Eagle Scout Project

The most honorable experience that I have had is working on my Eagle Scout project. I learned how to become a better leader, tackle difficult situations and how to work with others. All of these skills helped me be a better person. Being a leader is no simple task. During my Eagle Scout project, I lead a range of people, from adults to youth. It was my job to make sure everyone was working and, that everyone was capable of doing their task. I had many issues doing this throughout my project because

Camp Chawanakee

During my life, So far a lot of my greatest memories involve Boy-Scouts. One of the best moments, I remember is my very first Summer Camp. I had been involved in Boy-Scouts for around four months. I had been told about Camp Chawanakee from other Scouters and I was so excited to go. It was around 3 weeks before we would be going to camp. Before we went to camp, we got to pick some merit Badges we would be doing. I had 5 class periods and 3 of them were going to be trail classes. So I had 2 more badges

What Is Eagle Scout Essay

Army soldier and playing war games on my Xbox or computer, I belonged to the Boy Scouts, there I really think my passion to serve my country started to show. I spent many hours volunteering, camping, and learning how to survive as a young man. I earned my Eagle Scout by the age of fifteen and as I continue to follow the Boy Scout motto “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally

Core Values Of Eagle Scout

The core values I think represent me the best are Honesty, Friendly, Helpful, and Courteous. These are a few of the things I learned from achieving the rank of Eagle Scout in my Boy Scout troop, the scout law has twelve core values but these are the ones that best represent me. Each of these four words I depict in my everyday style whether its helping someone with directions or holding the door open for someone whose hands are full to making sure that I am polite to everyone I meet and making sure

Eagle Scout Project Analysis

The goal of this Eagle Scout Project is to renovate and restore the two adjacent interior courtyards at Fort Lee High School in order to create a pleasant aesthetic as well as to provide a green and friendly outdoor environment where instruction may take place. In their current state, the two courtyards of interest are in a state of disarray. Over the years, these areas have become quite an eyesore as they have been poorly maintained, overgrown with weeds and ivy, as well as strewn with garbage,

Eagle Scout Project Research Paper

contribution I have made in my life so far is the contribution of helping my scouting troop with Eagle Scout projects. It may not sound like much to the average person, it might sound like I am only helping ten or twenty people do their project. However, Eagle Scout projects benefit much more than ten or twenty people on average, individually, and that is where I find it to be truly meaningful. Helping Scouts complete this task has required time, effort, and a lot of selflessness, and that makes it my

Personal Narrative: My Eagle Scout Service Project

Lord Baden-Powell once said, “The real way to gain happiness is to give it to others.” I am currently a Life Scout finishing up my final requirements for Eagle Scout. One of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout is to perform a service project for my community. My Eagle Scout service project was a very meaningful contribution to the community. I partnered with the American Red Cross to organize and coordinate a blood drive to collect blood for hospitals that are in desperate need of units of

Friends of Scouting

Scouting, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Eagle Scouts... I would like to start by saying: there are no more important people in this room than the two young men we honor here. If there were a Congressman, a United States senator, a governor, or even a chief executive officer of a FORTUNE 500 company here today, there would be no one in the room more important than our new Eagle Scouts. They are among the most important people in America. These two new Eagle Scouts are the worthiest members of the greatest

Railroads Crossing Dangers

6 Works Cited

The railroad crossing at the block of 900 Eureka Street continually has an issue of overgrown vegetation posing a consequential danger. This specific crossing has proven to be a perilous crossing. June 5, 2008 a catastrophic fatality transpired. In 2008, the crossing had no gates or lights yet displayed only cross buck signs with a stop sign. The track possesses a hazardous curve upon approaching the crossing. Proper vegetation maintenance is vital for the safety of City employees crossing this track

Boy Scouts Life Lessons

Many people believe the Boy Scouts of America, BSA program is blemished due to current events. However, I think boy scouts is a great thing. The program really gave me many new experiences and showed different aspects of the world. More importantly, my personal experiences shaped who I am by helping me overcome fears at many levels. One of the main concepts taught in scouting is team work. Even though I’m really introverted and scared of new people boy scouts taught me how to work as a team even

Worth reading: Eagle Scout’s essay on “The Importance of Scouting in America”

In a passionate, well-thought-out essay that also serves as an excellent endorsement of Scouting, Julia Shepherd, a member of the BSA’s inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts , starts by listing a handful of famous Eagles. Then, she writes:

These people have all made their mark on the world, a path led to them through Scouting. Leaders have to make decisions, be problem solvers, face adversity, and follow their moral obligations – all principles of Scouting. … Teaching young girls and boys the values of responsibility, loyalty, leadership, and camaraderie at this age equips them for life in the reality we live in. In the ever-changing society that we are a part of, these characteristics are fundamental for children to possess and carry with them into adulthood.

The essay was part of a Central Florida Council scholarship contest. Apparently, the judges were as impressed as I was: They awarded her first place.

The importance of the uniform

Julia, from Troop 4773 in Longwood, Fla., expresses her thoughts on — among other things — the importance of the principles that kids learn in Scouting. She also uses the Scouts BSA uniform as a metaphor for everything that Scouting is about.

All of the different components of the uniform combine to form a harmonious unit, much like Scouts in America. Although there is much more to a Scout than the uniform they wear, it encapsulates everything that Scouting stands for. From the leadership to the unity to the citizenship, the uniform and the values embodied within it resemble the true importance of Scouting in America.

The uniform belt, Julia says, represents the support Scouts show to each other.

Whether it is at a troop meeting or on a camping trip, Scouts are almost always working together. Building the trust and skills to work in a team empowers everyone to continue pushing towards the goal.

The neckerchief slide holds the neckerchief in place, as Scouts must hold onto their values. The position patch signifies leadership. And the council patch represents the community to which all Scouts belong.

The importance of character

Julia interjects some personal anecdotes throughout, including the time she and some other older Scouts helped some new Scouts set up their equipment the first time they went camping. She also emphasizes the benefits of the BSA’s merit badge program.

The Personal Fitness merit badge discovered my love for tennis, the Citizenship in the Community merit badge formed my aspirations to run for city council, and the Fingerprinting merit badge intrigued my career interest in forensic science. Exploring these new subjects at a young age helps pinpoint future aspirations and goals.

Julia, who is now studying neuroscience at the University of Central Florida, concludes her essay by writing about perhaps the most important patch of them all: the U.S. flag emblem worn on the right shoulder.

America needs the youth’s generation to be endowed with the values of hard work and morals to better the future of our world and our society. … Scouts are our future, and they are equipped with a skillset that gives me confidence and faith in the future of our country.

Click here to read Julia’s essay in its entirety.