Starfleet Ranks in a Star Trek MMORPG +

We saw in a couple of Star Trek episodes (TNG: "The First Duty" and DS9: "Valiant") that Starfleet Academy cadets have rank, but we never really saw how those ranks were determined. So maybe that's an opportunity for the developer of a Star Trek MMORPG to implement their own take on it.

For example, a simplified version of Academy rank might be fun:

Year 1: Cadet Ensign
Year 2: Cadet Lieutenant
Year 3: Cadet Commander
Year 4: Cadet Captain

An alternative to this might take into account a player's training performance in some way (although I suspect it's unlikely):

Year 1: Cadet Ensign
Year 2: Cadet Lieutenant
Year 3: Cadet Lieutenant Commander
Year 4: Cadet Commander
Year 4 with distinction: Cadet Captain

After graduating from Starfleet Academy, a character might go directly into service or choose to spend an additional year at some form of advanced training. In these cases, I would suggest that characters on either path begin with a rank of Ensign, but a character who successfully completes a year or two of advanced training would enter active duty service with a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant junior grade.

The difference between these two paths might be that the character who takes advanced training has a safer and more certain route to promotion, while the character who enters service immediately starts at a lower rank but has more opportunities to advance in rank while the other character is still in school. By the time the more educated character enters service as a Lt. j.g., the other character who successfully took more risks may already have been promoted to full Lieutenant.