re: #153 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Members of Star Fleet all had to belong to the educated elite.

Getting into Star Fleet Academy was like a cross between having to get a BSc with 1st class honors from someplace at least as good as Oxford and then getting into Annapolis in competition. Seriously high end elites. Roddenberry though thought everyone would be that good by the time of TNG - he was a wee bit more grounded in reality during the era of TOS’s production.