Maybe this has been asked or answered before but im watching the tng episode where wesely takes the starfleet entrance exams and only one person gets it. Im thinking its per quadrant thing but it just seems so nuts that they take so few. Not to mention you would think two or three would be retakers. Was this ever explained?
Vulcans have the belief in Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations and the Federation as a whole is typically portrayed as finding strength in diversity.
Through DS9, we saw several officers in Starfleet who were either the first of their species or at least very rare. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some weight given to diversity in the same way a lot of private colleges do.