the sorting hat problem

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 54601

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sidkrisha" <sidkrisha at y...> wrote:
> Hi 
> 
> ...edited.. 
> 
> I was just wondering how the Sorting Hat works. Let me explain 
> it in detail.  Say, we have 40 students entering Hogwarts each 
> year (40 is just a number I picked for convenience) and they are 
> gonna be sorted soon. With 4 houses in the school, I would 
> assume that each house gets 10 people.  
> 
> ...edited....
> 

bboy_mn:

There is no reason that the house numbers have to be balanced, and I
don't think the Sorting Hat 'fudges' (adjusts) it's judgment in an
attempt to strike a balance. 

There was a discussion recently that concluded that the bulk of the
students go to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and that Slytherin and
Gryffindor are much less common personality types. 

I'm inclinded to agree with this belief. I think there are a lot more
people who are driven by a strong work ethic and intellect excellence
than there are people who are obssessively driven by self-serving
ambition, or people who display a fierce unwavering loyalty and
bravery. All I have to do is look at the world around me and I can see
that this is true.

So I suspect that the houses are constantly out of balance, although
across 10 centuries, the averages could come out closer to even than
any 'moment in time' calculation might indicate. Overal, though, I
think Slytherin and Gryffindor are alway in a minority. 


> Sid continues:
>
> By the way, based on the COS, I calculated the strength at 
> Hogwarts to be 280 (which was why I decided on the number of 
> students per year as 40), but in another book (POA or GOF, I 
> forget which), there is a reference to 200 people in a house.  Can 
> someone fill me on on this? 
> 
> Sid 

bboy_mn:
Now you are opening up a can of worms. The number of student in the
school has been debated and calculated in every possible way
imaginable, and no one has ever reach a definitive conclusion. The
numbers simple can't and don't add up. (This, and equally so, the
number of wizards in the wizard world.)

JKR said that there were about 1,000 students at Hogwarts. Personally,
I don't take that as an absolute number. I take is as a general
indication of the relative size of the school. To me, a school with a
relative size of 1,000 means anything from 500 to 1200. I guess you
could look at it as more like the capacity of the school rather than
the immediate enrollment.

Most people do seem to agree that Harry's class year enrollment is
smaller than average.

In the end, the best guess of the school size is not what do you
calculate it to be, but how big does it seem. What is your impression
of the size when you read the story? I think this is the crucial
factor because JKR is under no obligation to make any calculated
aspect of the story add up after the fact; her primary objective it to
make you believe it when you read it. So when you read it, what was
your impression of the size? 

Most people who have tried to blend all the information (facts, and
figures) with general impressions have concluded that the current size
is in the range of 400 to 600. Again, those numbers are not provable,
they are not facts; they are SOME peoples impression.

If you go back to approximately Feb 5, 2003, you will find two or
three threads related to the number of students at Hogwarts. Here is a
link to the start of one of those threads.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/51690


Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn