Did Wes Get Fast-Tracked At The Academy Or Not?

[Mojochi]

Wes spent 4 years at the academy, from when he left after Final Mission, & still hadn't graduated by the time of Journey's End. Now granted, he got penalized an entire year for that Nova Squadron stuff, but I'm still trying to add it up, & it seems like he was there a long time (or the normal amount of time), considering that he'd spent just as long aboard the Enterprise, in one honorary ensign role or another, where he not only literally served in legitimate officerial posts, or on collaborative teams, but additionally spent pretty much every other waking minute otherwise engaged in study.

Add the fact that he is already accredited with being some kind of child prodigy, when it comes to science, & it makes me wonder... Didn't they comp him with any substantial reduction to class time for his over 3 years of meritorious service aboard a real Starfleet ship, or even move him through faster just on his own advanced skill level, or recognize what study he'd already put in? Because it really seems like they didn't much & it begs the question, what do you got to f...ing do, to get some love from that academy? He basically went to a home schooled academy, run by line officers, in the field, for just as long. I'm pretty sure no one could possibly have done MORE prerequisite work than he did.

 

[Herbert]

Didn't they comp him with any substantial reduction to class time for his over 3 years of meritorious service aboard a real Starfleet ship,

There's an early season episode (season one maybe?) where Wes says that he gets credit for his time on the Enterprise but it's unclear what that exactly means in terms of him perhaps graduating quicker than a cadet that didn't have onboard experience.

 

[Mojochi]

There's an early season episode (season one maybe?) where Wes says that he gets credit for his time on the Enterprise but it's unclear what that exactly means in terms of him perhaps graduating quicker than a cadet that didn't have onboard experience.

I do actually remember that line, & yeah, it's hard to know what amount it accounted for, but I'm mostly wondering if anyone might have nailed down a timeline of how long a normal academy enrollment lasts, (4 years I think) & how that stacks up to the actual time between Final Mission & Journey's End that Wes spends there

Factoring in the extra year penalty for Nova Squadron, it still seems like he was only on track to run the standard 4 years, if he wasn't slated to graduate until some time after he quit. It doesn't quite seem to me like he got much compensation for his over 3 years of field work at all.

I'm just wondering if anyone has got a more detailed idea of whether he was actually in some way ahead of his entrance class, which I'm guessing was class of 2367 (?). Under normal circumstances he'd have been slated to graduate in 2370, & with the penalty, 2371. So here we are in Journey's End, which is some time in 2370, & he isn't there yet

 

[SpyOne]

I think he got credit for his experience in terms of getting class credit.
My high school was associated with a university, so if a student exhausted the available classes in a given subject they could take college courses.
There was a guy a year ahead of me who had already taken calculus before high school, so he had already taken and passed every math course on offer. But he still had to take a math class to graduate. So he was taking math classes at the university. And by the time he graduated high school, he had moved into graduate level classes in math and physics.

Remember that we have seen several people who took additional courses at the Academy after graduation. Essentially, Wesley was able to take some of those courses as an undergraduate due to his extensive field experience.

I don't think Starfleet Academy lets people skip years no matter how much course credit they have, for much the same reason as why they rarely accept 17-year old applicants: SFA is not just a university, and its graduates are expected to be Starfleet Officers capable of representing the Federation and leading large groups. That demands a certain level af maturity, and some of that is physical.
I think it is pretty rare to find a human SFA graduate who is under 21.

 

[SpyOne]

It always struck me as odd that Harry Kim never mentioned Wesley. I mean, SFA is a pretty big place, but they were at the same campus, studying the same field, and in the same graduating class. Given that both were near the top of their class, it seems odd that harry never mentioned that he might have been one notch lower in that class if it hadn't been for that guy who dropped out during Senior Year.

 

[Mojochi]

It always struck me as odd that Harry Kim never mentioned Wesley. I mean, SFA is a pretty big place, but they were at the same campus, studying the same field, and in the same graduating class. Given that both were near the top of their class, it seems odd that harry never mentioned that he might have been one notch lower in that class if it hadn't been for that guy who dropped out during Senior Year.

It is rather odd. Robin Lefler knew all kinds of stuff about him from two different people at the academy while Wes was there. It's not like someone with Wes' notoriety would fly under the radar

 

[Marynator]

Oh I think your Harry Kim mystery is so much stranger then!

I don't think Wesley would've gotten any preferential treatment, I have a feeling many Starfleet cadets have had previous experience, and like some of them might even be older Vulcans who are from their Science Academy? Didn't even Mr Data spend his full four years there?

 

[Mojochi]

Oh I think your Harry Kim mystery is so much stranger then!

I don't think Wesley would've gotten any preferential treatment, I have a feeling many Starfleet cadets have had previous experience, and like some of them might even be older Vulcans who are from their Science Academy? Didn't even Mr Data spend his full four years there?

True, but Data wasn't previously trained. He'd not even completely mastered social relations, & there were also questions as to whether he should even be there. Surely they'd make that guy jump through every hoop they could. As to other enrollees having had similar experience to Wes', prior to joining? I'd take the opposite position there.

I'm under the impression we're supposed to think it's pretty unusual for a captain to invite a teenager to serve on his crew, & were it not for the fact he was some prodigy phenom, whose mother was a senior staffer AND someone extraordinarily close to the captain, a captain who is remarkably progressive amongst his peers, even he wouldn't have gotten that chance. I might even go so far as to say Wes could very possibly be the ONLY person serving on a Starfleet crew, under academy age, & it's also at least possible he's the only one to have EVER done it, though you'd expect them to comment on it, had that been the case. Needless to say, I can't see it being commonplace enough to make it an inconsequential training experience

Besides, I'm not saying he'd get preferential treatment, just course credit. He did say his work aboard the Enterprise counted toward classwork, & already having served with line officers is about as valuable a course credit a cadet could ever hope for, but I just can't account for any substantial reduction of time it actually garnered him

The only thing I can think is that they ended up not counting it for much, once he got there. Despite his intellect & talent, he is terribly socially awkward, & once they saw that, they might have thought "Nope, this kid needs to grow up just the same" & for all intents & purposes, that would be a fair assessment, given the tragedy of poor judgement he got embroiled with, in Nova Squadron. I guess he could've flopped his focus around some too & ended up extending his time from switching studies

I'm just wondering if I'm right to think he probably shouldn't have been there as long as he was, under the circumstances we know of

 

[SpyOne]

I think Wes may have gotten a lot of credit for his experience, but that didn't reduce his time.
Like the guy I mentioned above who had already passed calculus, but that didn't affect his need to pass a math course to graduate.
If Starfleet were to decide that Wesley had already learned everything they teach in the first two years, that just means he'll spend his last two years taking classes most undergraduates never get, not that he doesn't need to spend four years in the Academy.

 

[SpyOne]

On the other hand:

I agree that it seemed to be implied that, once he became "Acting Ensign" and especially after his "Field Promotion" that his time would count towards time at the Academy, though maybe not at a 1:1 basis.

Am I remembering correctly that when Wes finally left for the Academy it was in the middle of the school year? Perhaps being able to take only the spring semester and have that count as his freshman year is the credit he got.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Didn’t seem that way. Nog on the other hand.

Sisko has just a little more pull at the Academy than Picard, apparently.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Service in wartime maybe counts towards more credits, plus the necessity of having as many personnel as possible.

Kids might be given unofficial jobs like "captain's assistant" Naomi Wildman on other ships that have few children on board and are on long-term missions (not just those stranded like Voyager), because they can't interact with other children regularly and play, and you can't always spare somebody to exclusively babysit, so they do their less-dangerous job duties and the kid helps out.

 

[May 20]

Well, having coursework granted doesn't automatically mean one will spend less time in school. Wes could have taken advantage of not having to do his core classes and decided to spend his four years acquiring what would be a double major in today's world. We just don't have enough information to say for sure.

 

[Iamnotspock]

Wes spent 4 years at the academy, from when he left after Final Mission, & still hadn't graduated by the time of Journey's End. Now granted, he got penalized an entire year for that Nova Squadron stuff, but I'm still trying to add it up, & it seems like he was there a long time (or the normal amount of time), considering that he'd spent just as long aboard the Enterprise, in one honorary ensign role or another, where he not only literally served in legitimate officerial posts, or on collaborative teams, but additionally spent pretty much every other waking minute otherwise engaged in study.

The answer to your question would seem to be no. There are three years between 'Final Mission' and 'Journey's End', during which he's held back a year, so by JE he's roughly half way through his time at the academy when he drops out. He says in 'The Game' that he had thought that after serving on the Enterprise it would be a breeze, but that there's a lot more to learn than just starship operations.

 

[Mojochi]

The answer to your question would seem to be no. There are three years between 'Final Mission' and 'Journey's End', during which he's held back a year, so by JE he's roughly half way through his time at the academy when he drops out. He says in 'The Game' that he had thought that after serving on the Enterprise it would be a breeze, but that there's a lot more to learn than just starship operations.

Oh yeah, that's a good point. I forgot about that line. Boy that kid's Starfleet arc is kind of disappointing lol

 

[WinterSoldier]

While he probably got some initial bonus or preferential treatment, after what happened in s5 ep19, I imagine his punishment would vastly outweigh whatever academic benefits he gained.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

I lean towards the double major theory. I also suspect he would have started as a lieutenant JG upon graduation instead of ensign.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Didn’t seem that way. Nog on the other hand.

Sisko has just a little more pull at the Academy than Picard, apparently.

I was going to bring up Nog. He was away for, what, less than a year? True, he came back still a Cadet, but that only lasted about another year(?).

 

[Schimpfy]

I believe that Nog and Wesley were in SFA at rather different times (re: wartime vs. peacetime) and so not comparable. During the Dominion War there may have been a way for fast tracking cadets through the Academy similar to how US military training programs were accelerated during certain periods.

 

[Timo]

I'd argue that the four-year standard is a myth. Exceptions abound, and are never really commented on. Merrick flunked on his fifth year; alt-Kirk completed his courses, including the optional no-win/captaincy test, in three years; alt-McCoy went in with alt-Kirk but was already a commissioned and relatively high-ranking officer by the time alt-Kirk was finishing his studies.

People get in when it pleases them (but underage and perhaps overage hopefuls have to compete in demanding special quotas, like Wes did), and study as much or as little as they want (at least the no-win command test and bridge watch qualification test being explicitly optional). But there's prestige at stake, and barging through the minimum requirements in two years is generally a bad career move. Except under special circumstances such as wartime, where the flexibility of the institution allows for "ninety-day wonders" without the worst inherent handicaps.

The Academy would have to be flexible like that to accommodate the diversity of the student material, really. While many universities today struggle with aliens, all they really have to cope with is a language barrier - not hundredfold differences in learning rate, telepathy, lack or excess of manipulatory or sensory organs, or the fact that the student does not recognize the concept of "individual" or "time" or "existence".

Timo Saloniemi