Hogwarts Student Population/Admittance to Hogwarts

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45305

kateydidnt2002 writes, on which I suspect is an old and recurring thread;

>>I believe that you are admitted to Hogwarts in the calender year in which 
you turn 11, meaning all students born in the year 1980 would start at 
Hogwarts in 1991.  Therefore, Ron was born on March 1, 1980; Harry July 31, 
1980; Hermione September 19, 1980. This is supported by the fact that GoF 
clearly indicates that Fred and George turned 17 in April of their sixth year 
(Scholastic, hardcover pg 189)meaning that they were born in April of 1978 
and entered Hogwarts in 1989 because that is the calendar year in which they 
turned eleven.<<

Then you intend to claim that Angelina Johnson is a 7th year in GoF? It has 
been strongly implied that she is the same year as the twins (6th). I suppose 
that if she is still at Hogwarts in OotP we will at least have a peg to hang 
future speculations of this order on. Because her birthday was the week 
before the end of October and she was able to put her name in the Goblet 
without needing to cheat. 

It is my understanding (possibly faulty) that most of the British schools 
demand that the child have actually reached the entry age before they will be 
permitted to attend the school. Which means that the child must be 11 by 
September 1st before they will be accepted into the first year. Ergo, schools 
"have their own fiscal year" system. And either Angelina Johnson was 17 for 
most of her 6th year at Hogwarts, or Gryffandor will be down a Chaser as well 
as a Keeper at the opening of Phoenix. 

If schools have their own fiscal year, then Hermione is one of the oldest of 
her year, having been born on 9-19-1979 rather than 1980. My own view of this 
is that it fits fairly well with the fact that she claims to have memorized 
all of her course books by the time she boarded the Hogwarts Express and has 
been practicing spells at home before officially entering school. If she got 
her Hogwarts letter around her birthday, it was already too late to start 
with the previous year's term but she had nearly a year to prepare for the 
following year. She hasn't ever claimed to have memorized the course books 
before beginning any of the years since, you will notice. 

Another point to bring up is that in her interview Rowling states that the 
Minerva sends out letters to all the children who are turning eleven in a 
given year, NOT all the children who will be at starting Hogwarts in that 
year. The two do not HAVE to completely overlap. For one thing, children who 
turn 11 after Sept 1, particularly Muggle-born children, will not have 
completed their primary schooling ahead of schedule just because their 11th 
birthdays are in that calandar year. We have been given no reason to believe 
that some Hogwarts students started their secondary education a year early 
due to Hogwarts being on a different schedule from the rest of the British 
school system. 

-JOdel