Student population at Hogwarts

[Deeblite]

No: HPFGUIDX 18443

I don't know if this has been discussed here before or not, but I know it 
has been in the alt.fan.harry-potter newsgroup.

Has anybody figured out the approximate number of students that attend 
hogwarts?   Based on the numer of students in Harry's dorm, assuming that's 
about average for the students in each house in every year, there should be 
somewhere around 300 students. (high estimate.  Assuming it's 5 students in 
each dorm, male and female dorms, 7 years, 4 houses, there should be 280 
students).  Now, in GoF, at the Yule ball,there were around 100 
tables,  and each table held 12 people.  1200 seats.   Now, I know this was 
also to account for the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students,but I figure 
there couldnt have been more than 100 of them overall. That leaves about 
1100 seats  And there were almost no hogwarts students over 4th year there, 
and not even all the 4th years and above would have been there.  Based on 
this, it would seem the 300 student estimate seems FAR too low.  So, what 
does everyone think about this?