Did McCoy also graduate in 3 years?

Kirk boasted that he would complete the Academy in three years. It seems that McCoy also completed the Academy in 3 years. We see him on the shuttle as a new recruit in Trek09 and he also goes on the mission to Vulcan where he is promoted to Chief Medical officer.

 

That's what I thought too, plus he's a different career path from Kirk.

 

I don't think Starfleet is exactly like the U.S. Naval Academy. The rank you graduate with seems dependent on what position you're going for (you can go straight from cadet to a senior officer upon graduation).

 

A medical officers training could be shorter since they already know medicine when they arive at the academy. There, on the other hand, seems to be few prerequisits for regular cadets.

 

Yeah, I assume that's the same case in the real-world US military, too (but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). The big difference between mere enlistment and a terminal degree is that if you already have training in your specialty and thus come in more prepared than your usual cadets.

Besides, the US military is always in need of medical professionals anyway, so I would imagine that anyone who joins up but already has the qualifications would get fast-tracked to get them into service quicker, getting trained more in the military culture and lifestyle and the factors that come into play in such circumstances as related to their medical training.

And, at the very least, we've been taught for years that McCoy himself was a medical genius anyway, considering all the times he saved the crew with some last-minute potion in addition to his professional accomplishments. Even if he had to start from the ground up, there's no reason to think that McCoy didn't work his butt off just as much as Kirk at the Academy.

 

He's probably spent a few years as a civilian medical doctor, so his course was probably shorter.

 

Some possibilities: Bones joines Starfleet to complete his medical residency; he held something more like a MBBS rather than an MD, but was pursuing the latter; McCoy was an incoming medical student, but was trying to distinguish himself from the other recruits when he described himself as a doctor when he first met Kirk.

 

I never liked that whole 3 years comment. Not saying Kirk wouldn't be intelligent enough to do it in 3. But you don't just need intelligence, you need to actually take a lot more courses in a shorter amount of time. Does Kirk in the movie seem like the type of guy to spend almost all his evenings in class? Furthermore, even if he is really smart, Starfleet is obviously really really hard to get through. So it kind of makes it a little unlikely unless you're someone of Spock's caliber.

 

He has a genius level intellect according to Pike. Apparently tests were given.

 

in the comic about McCoy he was already a doctor, he hadn't intended to work in the space his career and plans for the future were to live his life in earth. Then his wife wanted a divorce and it changed everything. In the comics he also meets this kid who is one of his patients whose dream was to join startfleet but doesn't get the chance.. so McCoy basically gets the idea to join it himself from there...
Then like some people already said here, it's pretty possible he graduated sooner because he already was a doctor.

 

Yeah, they basically applied the story of GOOD WILL HUNTING onto Kirk's background.

 

Maybe that's why they originally wanted Matt Damon as Kirk.

 

True, but all we know Kirk was already done with college and just being a bum in town. So Pike got him in and he maybe took all "fast track" courses.

 

I thought that was just me.

 

Perhaps McCoy didn't need to complete a full course load at the Academy at all.

IRL, military doctors don't go to the service academies, but receive commissions at - I think - the O-3 level. (For instance, my dad served in the Army Medical Corps, but didn't go to West Point; he was commissioned directly as a Captain when he joined.) Perhaps something similar applies to Starfleet doctors.

True, we see McCoy attending classes and taking the Kobayashi Maru test with Kirk, but that doesn't mean McCoy has to complete a full curriculum like Kirk is doing.

 

I assume McCoy was involved in some sort of officer's training course and possibly learning more about specifics of "space medicine".

 

Just what WAS a doctor doing operating a bridge console in the Kobayashi Maru test anyway?

 

Actually what does a Doctor need to do in the Academy for 3 or 4 years.

In my country in some cases officers get their degrees in the Academy. McCoy obviously already has his. McCoy in TOS didn't seem to know much about non-human medicine. He had to pick that up on the fly it seemed. So I don't think in TOS they were teaching Doctors much about Space Medicine in the Academy so I'm thinking 3 years is plenty for McCoy.

 

Perhaps at Starfleet Academy they get up to scratch on alien biology? Being a citizen of Earth, perhaps McCoy was only qualified to work on Humans.