posted
ok, forgive me if this seems kind of odd, but i never really knew the true answer to this. is joining starfleet the same as it is like the army or anything (meaning that anyone can join starfleet but to go to the academy you have to get accepted like you would have to get accepted into west point). if this is true, do you start out a higher rank upon graduation if you went to the academy, as opposed to just joining starfleet? or, do you have to get accepted no matter what and the only place you can learn is at the academy? thanks for all the answers.
In "The Drumhead" Simon Tarsis said he enlisted in Starfleet. He got into the service quicker, but at an enlisted rank. Those who graduate the Academy enter as officers.
One would imagine there is an Officer Candidate School for people who want to be officers in Starfleet (Ensign and up) but don't want to spend four years at S.A.
I think Tarsis attended enlisted training ("boot camp", if you will) on or near Starfleet Academy, since he said he saw the cadets parading around under the same tree Picard has liked to study. However, I'm almost certain this isn't the only "boot camp" in the Federation -- just as I'm sure that Starfleet Academy has branches spread about on various worlds. "I've been accepted to Starfleet Academy - Andoria Prime!"
[ January 07, 2002: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]
posted
He'll leave when transporters become safer to use...
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
I imagine that to enter Starfleet one would require a certain familiarity with such concepts as spelling, grammar, punctuation, capital letters, that sort of thing. . .
posted
It'll take forever for the transporter to become safer, I say we shoot him off in a modified torpedoe casing. We'll pack him extra airplane peanuts for the long trip.
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Just to be specific, we have seen everyone's favorite acting ensign take just such a test. Onscreen canon! As it were.
Registered: Mar 1999
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In this Starfleet Academy entry test in "Coming of Age", four candidates were pitted against each other in a contest where only the winner would be accepted for an "opening" in the Academy. It seems pretty odd whichevery way you look at it.
If there was only one opening for the Academy in general during that year, it's a miracle Starfleet hasn't run out of officers already. More officers than that were killed aboard the E-D alone, even during the relatively bloodless first season of TNG. Why were only these four people eligible for the contest? And why was this contest of galactic importance held out in the sticks on some two-bit outpost?
If, OTOH, there were several openings that year, and this one was a "special" reserved for the best and the brightest, then why didn't Wesley try out one of the other, less "special" openings when he flunked this one? Pride? He'd surely have topped the majority of the competitors in the "lower leagues", if Nog later managed to enter without difficulty.
Or were these four fighting against a special handicap of some sort? Perhaps they had to enter a fiercer competition than the rest because they were underage, or from undesired or already overrepresented population groups, or came recommended by officers who were in political disfavor? Had Picard sponsored a disappointing candidate the year before, which is why his judgement was questioned and Wes subjected to closer scrutiny?
Or were all these four possibly sponsored by Picard? Perhaps they competed for a single sponsorship opening, whereas actual entry after the securing of that sponsorship was a mere formality? Still, Wes ought to have been able to get a new recommendation from some other officer, even if he or she wasn't as surefire a guarantee for entry as Picard would have been. The lowly Sisko got Nog in - surely Cmdr Riker or, say, Capt DeSoto would only have been happy to usher in Wesley.
If Starfleet simply checks the whereabouts of each applicant and arranges for tests in locations that are logistically the most convenient, then this all might make some sense. These four would be but a minor part of, say, 4000 yearly applicants. But then the total score of each of the four should have been compared to those of the other 4000, not just to those of the other 3... Perhaps none of the four would have made it. But considering the quality of other applicants we've seen accepted, all four would probably have qualified. Was it just a freak accident that one out of four here got results over the numerus clausus? Was the quality of entrants especially high overall that year? Was the examining officer prescient or in possession of inside information when he said only one of the four would qualify? Did he rig the contest?
posted
I recall Tac Officer Chang saying that only only one candidate would be accepted from the installation they were at. So, obviously there was more than one opening. Just only one would be taken from that group. Possibly these were all Starfleet brats that were out in the boonies and had no way to test other than this.
But, yes, any way you look at it, it's odd. Why would all of them not be acceptable? Why does Starfleet take 16 year olds? It didn't really make any sense other than as a plot device.
posted
Of course, and that was the whole point, wasn't it. Who in the ranks of TPTB gives anything about logic?
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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posted
I think its because they were on Relva VII.. lets say that Starfleet Academy has a class of several thousand.. and they take a 1,000 Earth applicants, 1,000 applicants from the planet Vulcan, then maybe a few hundred or so from each of the member worlds, and a few dozen from each colony like Mars or Titan.. by the time you got down to rinky-dink-re-used-Buck-Rogers-installations like Relva VII, there wouldn't be that many spots left. its on the basis of population. Earth probably has 6-8 billion beings on it, so it has a lot of applicants.. Relva might only have a population of a couple hundred, and therefore only gets one applicant accepted..
Its the same reason why its hard for kids here in Rhode Island to go to Brown.. Brown prefers its students to be from out of state, and therefore only has a couple of spots for native Rhode Islanders.
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
The differnec is, though, that Starfleet isn't Brown. It's a service organization. I'm having trouble with the idea that entrance has anything to do with population. Starfleet has relatively unlimited resources in the terms of facilities. This is especially so if they have off-world annexes.
So, if we assume that there are several planet-side facilities like the one in San Francisco, I see no reason why all applicants who met the entrance qualifications would not be accepted. Especially in a time of war.
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I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
i still think it was because Relva was backwater. even if Starfleet Academy was huge, had off-world annexes, and could accept exactly 9,423,091 students.. they would still have that limit of 9,423,091 chairs for the kids to sit in, and billions of kids applying from the trillions who inhabit the Federation worlds. Its a fact of life that some of them will need to enlist.
And 2364 was assuredly NOT a time of war.. post Tzenkethi, Talarian, Cardassian, the Klingon peace, and before the Romulan reappearance, the first 24 or so episodes fo TNG were in a time of ridiculous peace for the Federation.. one of the reasons they put a lot of toddlers on their explorers compared to the ships of the Borg-Dominion wars era.
And a time of war isn't an excuse to lower the bar for the admission of your officers. Quite the opposite, in fact it should demand that you train a higher quality of officer. Read 'Starship Troopers'
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Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
I never said it was a time of war. Also we're talking about an organization who seems to be made up, for a large part, of officers. It's been noted before that the officer/enlisted crew ratio is a bit off aboard Starships. There should be many more enlisted crew than we see.
So really, we're already talking about a system that doesn't make alot of sense. We're going to have to ignore a point somewhere.
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