Number of students, again

[spicoli323]

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No: HPFGUIDX C7098
From: spicoli323
Subject: Number of students, again
Date: 8/17/00 5:00 pm  (ET)

I am new here, so I am not sure I am covering old ground again, but as far
as the number of students goes, I just assumed while reading the books
that there would be 40 students per year, and, therefore, 280 students
total. My way of thinking is this: there are five Gryffindor boys in
Harry's year, and if we assume there are an equal number of girls, that
makes 10 Gryffindors total, and if we assume there are equal numbers in
each house, that makes 40 per year.
The question is, can we make the assumption that class is equally
divided in this way? I think it's at least possible. The administration
at Hogwarts might have slots for 20 witches and 20 wizards each year
and no more. Probably there would be other young magical children, but
the ones with less potential than the ones accepted at Hogwarts might
go to some version of a public school (in the American sense).
As far as equally dividing the children among houses goes, we already know
that the Sorting Hat isn't practicing an exact science. Some children
are apparently harder to place than others, and the Hat has as good as
said that many of them would do equally well in a different house. I
don't think Harry is unique in this sense. So each child isn't an exact
perfect match for his house--there is no "perfect" Gryffindor. I think
the hat might just take the 5 most Gryffindor-like boys in a year and put
them in Gryffindor, take the 5 most Slytherin-like girls and put them
in Slytherin, etc. This is a plausible way to account for the students
being equally divided by house and gender.
Wow, that was a longer post than I planned. I need a drink. Bye for now,

Steve