Question about Hogwarts' tuition

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 90588

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Patty Satjapot" 
<cowardly_heroic at y...> wrote:
> Hi everyone, sorry if this was discussed before.   I was reading 
through the
> series, and I realized that I have never come across anywhere in 
the book
> where they mention tuition for Hogwarts and if some students were 
waived or
> how much the MoM funded Hogwarts and who were their sponsors, 
etc.  I was
> wondering if anyone might have read somewhere in the books if they 
mentioned
> those things because I remember that Hagrid spoke to Harry in the 
first book
> about his gold in Gringotts for purchasing his equipment, but he 
didn't say
> anything about paying tuition.  If it's not mentioned in the 
books, did JKR
> mention it anywhere?
> 
> Patty

You know, I was wondering this while doing a reread of CoS. If poor 
abandoned orphan Tom Riddle could afford to go, then I would assume 
that there is some sort of scholarship program, and perhaps even 
governmental financial aid for those who cannot afford all the 
costs. The Weasleys, for example: Arthur, as a government employee, 
could probably recieve some sort of financial aid. (I know that here 
in the US federal employees families are eligible for special 
scholarships: my aunt is a postal worker and both my sister and I 
have applied through her for grants from the federal government. We 
also recieve state aid, if we qualify based on how much our parents 
make.) There must be some sort of aid to continuing students as 
well. Sirius ran away from home at 16, so someone had to pay his 
seventh year bills (I amuse myself here with a thought of Sirius 
paying back his student loans.) As to how Harry pays his bills, I 
would assume that there is special access granted to his vault at 
Gringotts, though what that access is I don't know. There must be 
some sort of direct deposit system that transfers funds, like a WW 
Western Union, as we have seen nothing of wizard credit cards or 
checks. But to move slightly off topic, there seems to me to be a 
lot of unanswered questions about the operation of Gringotts. For 
example, how did McGonogal get the money from Harry's vault to buy 
his Numbus 2000? How dod Sirius, a convicted killer, access his 
account to buy Harry's Firebolt? Who regulates the vault keys? Any 
thoughts, cause I have no idea. . 
Meri - who goes back to lurkdom with joyous thoughts of Arthur 
Weasley trying (and failing) to balance a checkbook