Percentage of Scouts Who Become Eagle and Mean or Median Age

[Krampus]

Interesting stats on Eagle Scouts by state.

[desertrat77]

Then, getting Eagle - at least in my troop - was both a bigger deal and less important.  Some will understand that situation.

 

So true.

 

Without today's fast track advancement, merit badge colleges, SM/mom/dad sweeping the path clean, earning Eagle yesteryear was a) rarer, b) an neat accomplishment and yet c) not considered a coronation.   All three factors were simultaneously true.

 

I recall these mindsets:

 

- Earning the Eagle rank was more or less an individual initiative--the scout did the work

- Plenty of darn good scouts finished at Star and Life...yet no one thought lesser of them for it, nor did scouters and parents push/shove/nag them along the path

- The first three Eagle presentations I saw as a scout were at the end of regularly scheduled troop courts of honor.  A few words, present Mom her pin, Mom pinned the Eagle on son, thank you for coming, let's have some cake, Tiger patrol has clean up duty, stack the chairs and take out the trash.   Very cool to witness.   But scouting seemed bigger than just making Eagle.

 

Were there parents who dragged Johnny to Eagle?   Sure.   But that was the exception.  

Edited February 26, 2016 by desertrat77

[Sentinel947]

Interesting stats on Eagle Scouts by state.

 

Any interesting tidbits you drew from that?

Edited February 26, 2016 by Sentinel947

[Stosh]

Is it just me or is there something behind the LDS units drawing a bit of suspicion as to being Eagle mills?

[Rick_in_CA]

He was just so busy with trying to make it in to college that scouting go in the way. Imagine that, being worried about making a top college at 13!!!! I wanted to tell him that where he goes to college does not matter when he's looking for that first job.

Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. I know several tech companies that really care which college you graduated from (the "we hire only from 1st tier colleges" guys). It doesn't make sense, but they do.

 

It's even worse in some other fields. There are a bunch of law firms that only hire Harvard or Yale grads.

[Stosh]

The door swings both way.  My step-son went to a prestigious school and got hired by a top tech company.  At 2.5 years he lasted longer than anyone else that was hired around the same time and by default became project lead supervisor with a 6 digit salary.  He quit last week, no job now but he said, no job was better than putting up with that company.  So, count your blessings, the prestigious companies aren't all they're cracked up to be either. 

[Krampus]

Any interesting tidbits you drew from that?

 

Hard to say. I think it would be nice to see membership data compared to this data to see what conclusions we could draw. Wish I had time to pull that together. I find it interesting that some states like mine have far more scouts (and Eagles) than other, more populous states (e.g., NJ). It would be nice to see demographic, educational and other information by state. It would be interesting to find out why Scouting is more popular with the youth in those states and what factors may affect it.

 

 

Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. I know several tech companies that really care which college you graduated from (the "we hire only from 1st tier colleges" guys). It doesn't make sense, but they do. It's even worse in some other fields. There are a bunch of law firms that only hire Harvard or Yale grads.

 

I work for one of the world's largest technology integration firms. I hire a ton of kids every year. We don't care if you come from Penn, Pitt, Harvard or the local CC. If you're an MIT grad, sure, but most likely you are looking for something else if you're an MIT grad. It simply doesn't matter if you spend 250k on your BS or 24k. What matters is your attitude, your drive, your ambition and your people skills.

 

My point is that you don't need to start in 7th grade by making your kid attend weekend tech or math classes just to get in to the "best college". These kids don't get a chance to be kids and enjoy life anymore. THAT is a HUGE impact on the Scouting program in my area. I get focusing on grades. I get focusing on extra curriculars. What I don't get is the wholesale focus from 7th grade on toward being #1 when the evidence shows that this approach, for the most part, does not have a significant impact on wages and job satisfaction later in life.

 

What it DOES show is that these kids are more likely to burn out earlier (see Stosh's other thread on burn out). 

[Krampus]

Another fun metric from BSA.

[Sentinel947]

Another fun metric from BSA.

 

I have no idea what to make of that metric. Scouts are older on average when they make Eagle. What's the significance of that?

[Krampus]

I have no idea what to make of that metric. Scouts are older on average when they make Eagle. What's the significance of that?

 

Dunno. I suspect all the other activities kids are in these days makes it harder to focus on just one thing. Society seems to look down on people who are not more diverse in their activities, rather than someone who has built deep skills in many disciplines such that Scouting offers. They see Scouting as one thing, one activity; rather than as the multitude of things it teaches that boys would need to goes to several places outside of Scouting to learn. 

[Stosh]

The title of the thread uses the term mean or median age and the statistics indicate average.  Out of 100 boys if one got eagle at 15 and 99 got it at 17, the mean/median would be 16, but the average would be 16.99+ something.  I didn't go well in math in school, but I think I have those numbers correct.

[qwazse]

I have no idea what to make of that metric. Scouts are older on average when they make Eagle. What's the significance of that?

Like stosh said the mean is skewed. Be nice to see the funky curve ... or maybe know what percentage were at age 17.5 - 18.

 

My suspicion is that boys are waiting until they can hop in a car and drive to wherever they needed to wrap up MBs and projects. That certainly was how my boys behaved.

[Peregrinator]

The title of the thread uses the term mean or median age and the statistics indicate average.  Out of 100 boys if one got eagle at 15 and 99 got it at 17, the mean/median would be 16, but the average would be 16.99+ something.  I didn't go well in math in school, but I think I have those numbers correct.

"Mean" generally refers to what most people call "average" (it is definitely not the "median"). In this case the mean or average would be 16.99 and the median would be 17.