Eagle
Rank Requirements

Including wording from the Eagle Scout Rank Application

To see the current requirements without the additional text from the application, Click Here

Text in green italics is on the Eagle Scout Rank Application (#55-728 - 1999 printing) but not in 2000 Boy Scout Requirements (#33215C), and either clarifies or amplifies the requirements from the book.

Portions of the wording in the book do not appear on the application, but are included below.

Age Requirement Eligibility: Merit badges, badges of rank, and Eagle Palms may be earned by a registered Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, or Venturer. He may earn these awards until his 18th birthday.Any Venturer who has achieved the First Class rank as a Boy Scout in a troop or Varsity Scout in a Team may continue working for the Star, Life, and Eagle Scout ranks and eagle palms while registered as a Venturer up to his 18th birthday.

Scouts and Venturers who have completed all requirements prior to their 18th birthday may be reviewed within three months after that date with no explanation.

For boards of review conducted between three and six months after the candidate's 18th birthday, a statement by an adult explaining the reason for the delay must be attached to the Eagle Scout Rank Application when it is submitted to the Eagle Scout Service.

The Boy Scout Division at the national office must be contacted for procedures to follow if a board of review is to be conducted more than six months after a candidate's 18th birthday.

A Scout or Venturer with a disability may work toward rank advancement after he is 18 years of age.  See Advancement Policies and Procedures for details.

Requirements:

1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 6 months as a Life Scout. 
   (Be active in your troop, team, crew, or ship for a period of at least six months after you have reached the rank of Life Scout.)
2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life. (Demonstrate that you live by the principles of the scout Oath and Law in your daily life. List the names of individuals who know you personally and would be willing to provide a recommendation on your behalf.)
3. Earn a total of 21 merit badges (10 more than you already have), including the following: 

1. First Aid 
2. Citizenship in the Community 
3. Citizenship in the Nation 
4. Citizenship in the World 
5. Communications 
6. Personal Fitness
7. Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
8. Environmental Science 
9. Personal Management 
10. Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling
11. Camping, and 
12. Family Life *

(List the month, day, and year the merit badge was earned.  For items g & j, cross out badges not earned.  If a crossed out badge was earned, it may be reentered in 13 through 21 (and should be if it was used for Star Scout rank or Life Scout rank).  Four of these required merit badges were earned for the Star Scout rank and three more were earned for the Life Scout rank.)

4. While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of 6 months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility: (List only those positions served after Life board of review date.)

Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader,  assistant senior patrol leader,  senior patrol leader,  troop guide,  OA troop representative, den chief,  scribe,  librarian,  historian,  quartermaster,  junior assistant Scoutmaster,  chaplain aide, or instructor.

Varsity Scout team. Captain,  cocaptain,  program manager, squad leader,  team secretary,  OA team representative, librarian,  historian* quartermaster,  chaplain aide,  instructor, or den chief. *By an oversight, this position was not listed in the requirements, but we have been informed that it will be included in the next printing of the Eagle Application.

Venturing crew / Sea Scout ship. President, vice president, secretary, treasurer, boatswain, boatswain's mate, yeoman, purser, or storekeeper

6. While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project idea must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and troop committee and  the council or district before you start. You must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 18-927A, in meeting this requirement.
7. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference. (Attach to this application a statement of your ambitions and life purpose and a listing of positions held in your religious institution, school, camp, community, or other organizations during which you demonstrated leadership skills.  Include honors and awards received during this service. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference with your unit leader.)
8. Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.

* You must choose only one merit badge listed in items (g) and (j). If you have earned more than one of the badges listed in items (g) and (j), choose one and list the remaining badges to make your total of 21.

Note: All requirements must be completed before a candidate's 18th birthday. The eagle Scout board of review can be held after the candidate's 18th birthday. For more information, see Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures, publication No. 33088B. Also see the note below.

If you have a permanent physical or mental disability, you may become an Eagle Scout by qualifying for as many required merit badges as you can and qualifying for alternative merit badges for the rest. If you seek to become an eagle Scout under this procedure, you must submit a special application to your local council service center. Your application must be approved by your council advancement committee before you can work on alternative merit badges. 

The Alternate requirements are also listed in more detail under Eagle Scout Rank - Alternate Requirements on page 16 of the y2k Boy Scout Requirements book. (No. 33215C).

NOTE:  The Application Form and the Service Project Workbook do NOT have to be completed and/or signed prior to the candidate's 18th birthday, only the REQUIREMENTS need to be done.  The top of the application form contains the following statement:

"This application is to be completed after you have completed all requirements for the Eagle Scout rank....When you have completed this application, sign it and submit it to your unit leader"

By the Scout's signature, it says:

"On my honor as a Scout/Venturer, all statements on this application are true and correct. All requirements were completed prior to my 18th birthday."

In "The 12 Steps from Life to Eagle" on the last page of the workbook, it says:

"3. It is imperative that all requirements for the Eagle Scout rank be completed prior to the candidate's 18th birthday. When all requirements except the board of review for the rank of Eagle, including the leadership service project, have been completed, the enclosed Eagle Scout Rank Application must be completed and sent to the council service center promptly."

Everything says REQUIREMENTS must be completed before the deadline, and the application be completed and submitted AFTER the requirements are complete.

The unit leader DOES have to sign and date the application, and the project workbook, but that date does NOT have to be before the deadline, so long as all the dates listing when the requirements were completed is listed. The date that the Unit Leader's Conference was held is a separate entry from the leader's signature date. The signature dates in the workbook are separate from the entry for the date the project was completed.

The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook (#18-927A) is now available for download from the
BSA website in both PDF and RTF versions
which can be used by Scouts in lieu of the printed form.
Click here to go to the BSA web site.

Mike Walton has created a PowerPoint Presentation that contains a set of worksheets that you can use to gather all of the information you will need to fill out your Application for Eagle Scout Rank Award.  To download it, Click Here.

Rick Cordray has developed a set of Microsoft Word documents that can be used to enter the data onto an Eagle Scout Rank Application (#55-728 - 1999 printing) using your computer printer. To use them, download each of these files:

• Instructions
• Application Page 1
• Application Page 2

BSA has a PDF version of the Eagle Scout Rank Application (No 58-728 - 2000 edition) on their site.  It can be used as the form submitted to BSA for an Eagle Scout candidate.  You may also try using that document to work with the templates Rick has provided.

Eagle Scout Rank Application (No 58-728 - 2000 edition)

To view the pdf file, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have the free Acrobat Reader, click on the icon below to obtain it, so you can view and print the forms.