posted
I think it's possible to keep the entire Academy on Earth. In San Francisco, there's the main campus. However, spread all over Earth are branches of the Academy. Currently existing miliary academies such as West Point or VMI would, in the future, be converted into various campuses for the Academy. With so many campuses, the Federation could actually keep all it's cadets on Earth. There wouldn't be any need of off-world campuses and could explain why everyone we see who's heading of to the Academy or is already a cadet whould be going to or is already at Earth. Thoughts anyone?
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Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Or TPTB think that viewers prefer the concept that humanity has the "monopoly" for training Federation cadets.
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Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I think that it's been the producers' intention that Earth is the only place you can go to the Academy. However, it makes much more sense to assume there are other annexes.
posted
According to TNG Eye of the Beholder there's a Starfleet Academy on Psi Upsilon 3 and a Starfleet Technical Services Academy on Mars.
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Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
And, er, given the debates we've had about the size of the Federation, doesn't it seem rather odd to ship cadets ten years across the Federation to go to a 4-year schooling?
posted
For some reason, I seem to recall that Troi took her Starfleet training on Betazed...
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Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I don't think so. Riker served on Betazed for awhile where he met Troi. But that was after serving on the Pegasus. Is that what you're thinking of?
She may have taken some training for her counselor's position on Betazed....
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Troi took her counselling training on Betazed before going to the academy. I think that Riker had something to do with that decision as well as her father - wasn't he also in Starfleet?
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Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
I think it was stated or implied that Troi went to university for however long that takes on Betazed, before joining Starfleet.
Registered: Mar 1999
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capped
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posted
this would fit with commissions being awarded to people who have completed college. The doctors probably completed their schooling in their field and then were awarded commissions as officers (but not in the line of command unless certified) based on their proficience in their specialty. The only analogy i can think is on MASH all the doctors werent from Army colleges, they went to regular medical schools and on the basis of that were awarded commissions when they joined up
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Registered: Sep 2001
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posted
is it possible that other species are unfamiliar with the Earth concept of "Academy" when applied to particular avenues?
That is to say...while the Vulcans have the highly visible schools of logic, and the Klingons are taught to fight from an early age (due to certain stereotypical archtypes being overriding in their respective culture's value systems for some reason I can't figure out, other than simplicity for the writers--i.g. these folks act this way, those folks act that way, throw a small twist in it, now you have a character) we don't actually see much of their universities and such. This doesn't mean they don't have them, and yet...wouldn't any academy on such idealogically homogenous worlds be rather dogmatic? I mean, more so than you would want in your typical federation training?
Earth may very well be the logical choice for the training of cadets in the Trek universe because of it's relatively diverse cultural setting--part of the training, you might say.
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
There may be something to that. If Starfleet wants to impose the human values on its officers, it might be a good idea to train them somewhere outisde the reach of their native cultural influences...
The Deanna Troi deal seems to be that she was studying at the University of Betazed at a time when Riker was assigned on the planet, but about to move on to the Potemkin and leave Deanna behind. Other timeline cues would put this only two years before Troi's graduation from the Starfleet Academy, which is why it looks as if she was doing her Academy studies at Betazed. Or then her SF Academy training did not take the full four years. The exact details of the timeline elude me at the moment - I once went through this mess and found no way out, but that was years ago.
Also, Bashir would be a nice case for testing our theories on graduation: we see him graduated at Lt.(jg) rank in "Emissary" and learn his exact age in "Distant Voices", and the combination seems to rule out the theory of "8 years of med studies + 4 years of SF studies". Again, I'm too lazy to work out the details...
posted
I was always under the impression that Bashir went through the Academy, graduated with the rank of Ensign, then enrolled in, or simply continued his studies in Starfleet Medical School. I'm almost positive he's mentioned such a school. He's most definitely mentioned Medical School at least in general since he graduated second in his class. However, I find it somewhat unlikely that the courses didn't overlap somewhat. He probably took the equivilant of pre-med during his Academy tenure.