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In honour of the release of the final Harry Potter Film, Centives decided to investigate what it would cost to go to Hogwarts.
Hogwarts is believed to be the best wizarding school in England. The average tuition for a year at England’s five most prestigious boarding schools is about £25,800.
On page 51 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry receives a letter detailing the equipment that he is required to purchase for Hogwarts. The letter is reproduced here. Centives went to Amazon.co.uk to estimate how much each of the items would cost.
Three sets of plain robes
Each set of robes costs £100, bringing the total to £300
One Plain Pointed Hat
Even an ancient and magical hat only costs about £20
One Pair of Protective Gloves (Dragon Hide or Similar)
Would Spirafil Synthetic Insulation and GORE-TEX waterproofing technology qualify as ‘similar’ to Dragon Hide? If so then they’ll cost you about £76.
One Winter Cloak (black, silver fastenings)
A winter cloak will sell for £25 and a silver brooch can be bought for £26.
One Wand
These go for £100.
1 Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
There aren’t that many pewter cauldrons available on the internet but a heavy cast iron one will set you back £23.
1 Set Glass or Crystal Phials
These can be bought for £8.
1 Telescope
Gaze at the heavens for £108.
1 Set Brass Scales
Just £8, although as of this writing there is apparently only one left in stock so you better get a move on if you plan to go.
Students are also required to buy seven text books. According to this site an average textbook in the United Kingdom costs £46. Seven textbooks will see you fork over £322.
The total cost for the first year at Hogwarts comes out to £26,816 or US$42,752 at today’s exchange rates. This of course is the bare minimum and doesn’t consider the cost of pets, Quidditch robes and other incidentals that every student invariably faces. Nor does this analysis account for the premium paid for magical items.
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Still cheaper than my college tuition!
more expensive
I’m not seeing a Galleons, Sickles, Knuts exchange rate.
If Dumbledore’s power to create things with a waive of his wand (e.g. feasts) is not unique to him, I’d suspect that there is serious hyperinflation going on with wizard currency because it’s essentially a world without scarcity.
Someone hasn’t read the books, obviously. The House Elves prepared the feasts in the Hogwarts Kitchens. Dumblestore merely apparated it up to the dining room.
Besides, I’m sure the currencys have standard anti-counterfeiting charms built into them. Otherwise they wouldn’t be stable stores of value worth hoarding in Gringotts’ vaults. Duh.
Clearly, you have not read the books. Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration means that no one can magically create food — there can and will be plenty of scarcity, and there is no shortage of starvation, as we see even the Trio go hungry on their mission through the seventh book.
The plural of “cauldron” should not have an apostrophe in it.
We’ve fixed it now, thanks!
Harry Potter is set in England. It’s country in western Europe. They are much more liberal about using state funds to help people do things get an education. Especially someone as potentially dangerous an uneducated witch or wizard. I mean the uneducated ones, especially the muggle-born ones could wreack all sorts of untentional havoc. Now you’ve got me thinking what a mess the magical education system must be in the USA. Where it’s probably pay as you go. Wait why am I devoting so much my time thinking of fictional magical educational systems?
>Harry Potter is set in Scotland.
Fixed that for you.
The Ministry of Magic, and therefore the centre of control in the wizarding world, is in London, England. Hogwarts is in Scotland, yes, but most likely it would fall under English jurisdiction.
I agree with finmagik. Not only is school education more funded in Europe, there are other elements in the production of magical items that cannot be easily compared in a non-magical community.
For example, hand-tailored robes would cost us 100 pounds, but in a world where the tailoring is done with a flick of the wand, increasing production and decreasing the amount of time actually needed to produce the robes, the cost is less.
Furthermore, the production in England caters to a larger group than in a non-magical world. All students would be buying the same supplies, also lowering the production costs.
@randophoria
The software won’t let me respond to you directly. There is no such thing as an “English juristiction”, England does not have its own government. The Ministry of Magic is located in Whitehall and presumably a Ministry of Her Majesty’s Government just like any other Ministry. Therefore it is not English, it is British, and responsible for governing matters throughout Britain.
Also it is made clear that the Ministry does not usually hold direct control over the operation or funding of Hogwarts. It is only in the fifth book where the Ministry makes a concerted effort to take over the school. Otherwise the school is governed independently.
Magical Education in the USA?
Whoa Boy! You had to ask. You are right. It is a mess!
Historically, until the early 20th century, due to the pervasive protestantism of the country, magical education was accomplished almost entirely abroad, American wizards and witches would send their children to European (or rarely) Asian academies. There was the odd exception for wizarding “homeschooling” which had decidedly positive results, but was not widely practiced. Of course, there have always been rumors of small, isolated and secretive ‘native American’ or ‘Carribean’ schools. There is also a tall tale regarding US General Sherman torching a southern school of magic during his fateful march to the sea in 1864.
This haphazard approach was changed during the First World War, under the Administration of Woodrow Wilson, who was, unknown to most Americans, a partially trained wizard in his own right, having been secretly trained in an Eastern European Wizarding academy for several years in his youth. Wilson’s admiration for the European penchant for War, Socialism and magic enabled him to establish the Federal Magician’s Progression, under which America’s first secret wizarding academy, Innsforth was founded in 1917. Innsforth was located near Dunwick, Massachusetts. The Academy was for men only. Not only that, but the school was also closed to racial minorities. The Academy stayed open nearly seven years, until Calvin Coolidge’s administration shut down the academy in 1924 citing a variety of justifications ranging from the then current Prohibition climate to budgetary restrictions. Franklin Delano Roosevelt resuurected the defunct agency in 1934, some think, in hope of ameliorating the Great Depression. The agency was reformed, reorganized and renamed the Federal Secular Miracle Administration (FESMA). The deteriorating Dunwich campus was demolished (though not without significant loss of life by the construction crew due to an unfortunate accident). New Wizarding campuses were built in downtown New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. A women’s only campus was opened in San Francisco, California. A minority-only school was planned for Tallahassee, Florida, but funding was withheld by the legislators of southern states for nearly three decades.
Enrollment in the academies peaked in 1938, with some interest being expressed by private institutions in developing their own “secular miracle” curriculums. Unfortunately, due to a sensation corruption scandal at the Chicago campus the Federal Government nationalized all magical education. The scandal caused permanent harm though and the Chicago campus closed on the eve the US entry in late 1941. Interest in magical training was diminished during the Second War War, though, there are many (still classified) examples of warlocks and witches contributing to the War effort on multiple fronts. Some of these stories inevitably leaked in to the popular press and were reported as stories of super-powered heroes battling the Axis powers.
Federal budget cuts accompanying the end of World War 2, unwanted publicity from the popular press and rising tensions of the Cold War prevented large scale investment in the magical education. The existing campuses limped along with minimal contribution. In 1954, FESMA was re-organized into the National Miracle Management Administration (NMMA) and new campuses were planned for several large US Cities. Other changes included the gender integration of the New York and Philadelphia campuses. San Francisco remainded an “all-witches” campus. Funding of the Tallahassee campus was blocked by recalcitrant southern politicians. These measures allowed a brief resurgence in magical education in the US, until 1956, when the House Un-American Activities committee conducted a secret hearing on the possibility of Communist infiltration into the American Magical Academies. This investigation resulted in the blacklisting of a significant portion of American Secular Miracle instructors. As a result, many staff and instructors at the American Academies left the United States and emigrated to Europe. Many found positions in the European schools. A few professors made high protest statements by joining the staff at Eastern European and Soviet magical institutions. The resulting exodus decimated the American Academies with the result that the Philadelphia Academy closed in 1959.
In 1961, the New York City and San Francisco campuses were forcibly integrated. In 1965 the Johnson Administration was finally able to overcome the delaying tactics of southern Senators and fund the Tallahassee Campus. That Campus was completed in 1968, but enrollment was much less than expected.
In 1975, the Agency’s name was shortened from ‘National Miracle Management Administration to merely ‘National Management Administration’ (NMA). To this day, no one can recall how the decision was made regarding the final name.
In 1983, the NMA was placed under the Department of Defense as part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. As a result their budgets were increased ten-fold and some wizards and witchs were accepted into the United States Air Force as officers. There are also rumors that the newly minted Wizard-Officers played a role in the final days of the Cold War, including an elaborate bluff of Premier Gorbachev at the famous Reykjavik summit in Iceland in 1987.
In 1994, the NMA was ejected from the Department of Defense and established as its own, civilian agency once more. However the military did establish their own military Wizarding Academy, located at the Cheyenne Mountain complex, in Colorado and another secret location in the New Mexico desert.
Over the last fifteen (or so) years, the civilian academies in New York, San Francisco and Tallahassee have kept a low profile, slowly growing in size and importance. Recent events in England, have only emphasized the need for Americans to value their magical assets and to maintain a steady engagement with the rest of the Magical World.
Very nice!
You didn’t take into account the cost to hire people creating visual effects whenever you cast a spell so that, you know, they look like real magic.
why do you assume that Hogwarts charges tuition fees?
I would expect it to be funded by Wizard taxpayers
Exactly! The poor Weasleys have 7 kids to put through schooling. And also, Hogwarts is the ONLY school in England for Whichcraft and Wizardry. The others are in France and probably Germany or something.
I agree!!! I have two little wizards in elementary school and my tax money is not even paying for schools supplies those are coming out of my pocket!!
Just wanted to point out one little discrepancy. The first point made in this report is that “Hogwarts is believed to be the best wizarding school in England [and] the average tuition for a year at England’s five most prestigious boarding schools is about £25,800.” According to the books the location of Hogwarts is most likely in Scotland, not England. If this is the case, then we must calculate the average cost of tuition at Scotland’s most prestigious schools. I found this site [http://www.best-schools.co.uk/league-tables/scottish-schools-a-levels.aspx] which lists the country’s best schools according to grades. From this site, one can calculate that the average cost of tuition is closer to £24,849, almost £1000 less than the original number. Hope this helps!
J.K. Rowling has said in interviews that Hogwarts is a state-run school and attendance is free. This is bolstered by the fairly free hand the Ministry of Magic seems to have in intervening—in Order of the Phoenix they force the school to take on a “high inquisitor” who eventually usurps the Headmaster position, and in Deathly Hallows the Voldemort-controlled Ministry seems to directly appoint a new headmaster (though I suppose that could have been achieved by intimidating the Board of Governors).
Even if tuition is free, though, that’s still something like £1000 of mandatory equipment, and presumably several hundred pounds more of replacements and additional textbooks for each of the other years. It’s no wonder the Weasleys had to stretch to educate seven children.
This makes it obvious that, across the pond in the United States, only rich kids get a university-level education in their wizardry. The rest probably have to use Google and teach themselves. I bet the accidents are spectacular.
This is how area 51 came to be. Bad wizarding education control.
Wizardary education in the US is very expensive. Using Harvard fees as a guide, these are the costs involved:
Tution £ 32,971.00
Room and board (21 meals per week) 9,331.00
Student fees and insurance 1,866.00
Books and required supplies 1,740.00
Misc. fees and charges 311.00
Total annual cost £ 46,219.00
Actually, in the wizarding world, students don’t generally go on to university level studies. They’re done after they complete their 7th year, and they’re considered adults once they turn 17. If they choose to pursue their studies it isn’t in a formal educational system.
So, being rich wouldn’t make a bit of difference in the U.S.
Hogwarts is good- but not university-level. These are middle and high-schoolers (US) that we’re talking about. You have to go on for further training if you’re looking at that sort of education. Why else was Harry taking specific classes 6th (and would have 7th) year? To get into Auror training. Gotta have the chops if you want to be FBI, yes?
Can’t you get a scholarship or something?
Tom Riddle (Lord Voldemort) was told that there was a scholarship available for orphans and such.
So yes, this was probably how the Weasleys were able to afford everything, even though the father was a head of a department at the Ministry and the family did all that they could with second-hand equipment.
the real question is: how much is that in galleons?
I’ve always wondered what the exchange rate of Galleons to dollars is…I was figuring maybe $15-20 to one Galleon?
The Galleons look to be about one ounce of gold or there about. So the true value of gold is done on the world market and as of this posting is worth almost $1600 an ounce.
The exchange rate has been guestimated by the powers-that-be (AKA J.K. Rowling) as 5 GBP to 1 galleon.
You forget that there is probably a decently large wage premium for witches and wizards relative to muggles. Given the immense skill-gap, and the fact that the wizarding world has their own government and currency, I would presume that $42,000 is quite affordable for a wizarding family. For example, the average 10 Yuan cab fare in Beijing is expensive for middle class Chinese, but quite cheap at around $1.50 for Americans. The one group who would need help affording Hogwarts would be the muggle-born students. While Hermione’s parents were both dentists and could probably afford Hogwarts, I wonder how many muggle-born kids have an aptitude for magic, but cannot afford a Hogwarts education.
On a side note, this opportunity to mix Harry Potter and economics just made my day!
You forget that they have a fund for kids who have no way of affording a magical education. Remember when Dumbledore went to the orphanage and gave Tom Riddle a bag of money to buy his school stuff? he said it was from a fund thingy
do they have scholarships?
A cheap Chinese Celestron telescope? Please, choose something that people will actually use.
I actually never got the impression that there is a tuition cost for Hogwarts. I always thought it was free to attend, you just buy your own supplies.
Just like our public school system???
@addysopinion *comprehensive (public school is a form of private boarding school, eg Eton.)
Very probably state funded. Otherwise the Weasleys wouldn’t stand a chance.
Considering the actual costs: the number of teaching staff at the institution is not very high. How many teachers are at the main table? The same goes for support staff: one (1) caretaker and his cat, a groundskeeper and his dog, and a lot of house elves who do not earn wages. All they need is full boarding and that can not be very expensive, considering the nature of the elves and the work they do for it. I also do not get the feeling that the education materials or methodologies are frequently updated which limits the expenditure on staff development considerably. So far, it seems that the only really high costs will be the maintenance of the building, methinks. Yet there is never mention of that in the books. Must all be done over the summer?
Why does this thread remind me of the Clerks dialogue about construction workers on the Death Star?
Good point about the Weasleys!
Discussing the exchange rate between Galleons and Pounds or dollars makes lite sense. Wizards have little desire for muggle products (except possibly food) and certain raw materials. Products created by witches and wizards on the other hand are illegal to sell to muggles (a word so hated by my muggle spell checker that it offers up any word in substitution). There is no basis in trade and so no basis in exchange rates, except as galleons, sickles, and knutes are valued as their raw metals of gold, silver, etc.
And Hogwarts is a free state run school. You never see in any of the letters that Harry receives (most notably the letter inviting him to attend Hogwarts) any mention of scholarships or tuition, something which would have to have been sent to Harry, as the Dursleys very definitely would not have paid his tuition.
In the second book, Hermiones parents are seen at Gringotts, changing their muggle money, so there must be some sort of exchange rate.
Dang, even if you had to pay $42,752 USD a year, it would still be a bargain considering all you get. You learn spells to cure injuries and aliments (compared to the cost of health insurance!), you learn spells for cleaning the house (wouldn’t need to pay a housekeeper anymore) and you learn to fly on a broom (have you seen the cost of airfare lately?!).
The pewter cauldron is one of JK’s very few errors – or rather, an error on the part of a Hogwarts secretary. Pewter is a very soft, low-melting metal, quite unsuitable for putting over a fire to brew things in.
wasn’t that one of the reasons Percy was writing that article on faulty cauldrons?
According to an interview done by JKR, a galleon is equivalent to about 5 pounds. Bearing that in mind the Harry Potter Lexicon website has a converter and according to its calculations in pounds a Hogwarts Education would be 5363 galleons, 3 sickles and 11 knuts. In US currency that would be 4245 galleons, 8 sickles and 5 knuts. The converter can be found at http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizworld/galleons.html.
But the currency wouldn’t change for U.S. currency. The amount in galleons would stay the same — perhaps only its worth would change.
wow you all realize this is make believe dont you.
Didn’t you know that make believe is infinitely more interesting than reality. Hence its popularity.
http://xkcd.com/359/
Oh yes it is but it is fun to make believe what I would do if I won the lottery. I have no life so I depend on make believe to make me happy – kinda sad huh? LOL
Cute post. But it assumes that goods and services in the Potterverse are valued equivalently to those things in the Muggleverse and are based on the same rules of supply and demand. In a world where magic can be used to create things, economics may function very differently.
The post also assumes that all students pay the same amount for tuition. Not a safe assumption by any standard. Even in the Muggle world, many students pay vastly different amounts for college and private school tuition. We Muggles call them “scholarships.”
$42K per student per year? I rather doubt the Weasleys could have afforded to send their six (?) children to Hogwarts by that estimate. Perhaps they got scholarships or free tuition because of Arthur’s position at the MoM.
The tuition was free, it being basically a state-run school. Books, uniforms, and materials and such aren’t though. It’s no wonder Ron always had hand-me-down robes! There was one year that there were five Weasley kids in school at the same time!
And the Weasleys had seven kids- Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred & George, Ron, and Ginny. Somehow people always forget George…
Could there also be some savings at Hogwarts for the upper year students as seen in the Half blood Prince? Remember Harry and Ron getting their books from the shelf in the Potions classroom at the start of that year? Harry’s book belonging to Severus Snape becoming his book for Potions for that year….Hmmmm. Thoughts?
You must remember that Prof. Slughorn told Harry that he could use the spare (Snape’s) book until Harry bought a new one, which Harry eventually did.
This also supposes that Hogwarts costs the same to run as a regular school, disregarding the fact that it is probably funded not directly from parents.
For example, instead of having a huge staff to cook and clean, Hogwarts employs House Elves, who work constantly and require no money; presumably the only expense there is food, and I doubt much at that, given the size of House Elves.
Additionally, Hogwarts is magic – we know electricity doesn’t work there, and presumably they don’t need to pay any other utilities, either – it’s all just magic. The heating costs alone that are probably saved by magic. I can’t even imagine what an average-sized boarding school costs to heat.
They also don’t have to pay postage to send correspondence to the children at home or the parents, other than the upkeep of owls which I assume is relatively minimal, especially as it seems that the owls probably hunt on their own rather than getting fed.
Also, the staff is relatively small – twenty, maybe? – also lowering THOSE costs. Hell, one of the staff is even a ghost – he probably doesn’t even get paid! How would he use the money, and what could he possibly use it for?
Not to mention it’s entirely possible that Hogwarts gets money from stuff grown in the Herbology greenhouses, potions that Snape brews, or things collected from magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest (remember Slughorn?)
So…yes. I really doubt that Hogwarts costs as much to run as a normal, muggle boarding school.
Personally, I’d say you might have to compare a wand to something more like a laptop. The wands available online don’t exactly do much (this may be because i am a misinformed muggle of course), but are obviously very very important in the wizarding world. A magic wand is a precise tool vital for all magic so I would imagine it would cost rather more than a set of robes.
There is actually a wand for sale that is a universal remote control which operates using gestures.
Agreed. You buy your wand one time, unless you have an unfortunate mishap where it breaks or is stolen, and its your forever. Obviously an item of such power that is expected for a lifetime would cost somewhere in the thousands.
Harry paid seven Galleons for his wand.
Harry paid 7 galleons which is about 35 pounds. Not so much, I suppose.
Don’t you know? All wizards are on scholarship.
Any chance we can get a scholarship?😛
So any particular reason for using the british name rather than the american one?
This is incredible. I have never seen or read anything more idiotic than this. Please find yourselves a real job, or go study some place else, because clearly your “University” is a below average institution. And more incredible is the amount of morons losers that actually believe this non sense. Un-be-lie-va-ble.
I feel sorry for you
“Stop having fun guys!” -insert whiny, nasally childish voice-
Hogwarts isn’t real? -heart attack-
No one here actually believes in this stuff. Calm down. It’s all just good fun. It is FUN to try to figure out what things would be like in an imaginary environment where magic is kept away from “muggles” and they have their own economy.
If you’re sure enough of your grip on reality, you have stretch your imagination and have a bit of fun with an imaginary world.
Everyone here is just having a bit of a laugh. It’s fun to use the right side of your brain.
According to: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Wizarding_currency J.K. Rowling has said that a single galleon is the equivalent of about 5 pounds, so it all works out to be about 5,200.
Remeber, it’s all relative. If you live in a country that spends pounds, you earn money in pounds, It’s the same for the wizards. They get paid in galleons so it probably isn’t that much money to them.
I think Hogwarts would fall in a category like Olin. It invites you and other than preparing yourself
with the “list” of books, wand and robes, and whatever else… it is free.
NEEEERRRDSSSSSSSSS!!
…oh…
Well then, prospective Wizards who truly want to learn real Magick and Wizardry should attend the online Grey School of Wizardry (www.GreySchool.com)! It’s a much better deal.–here are the comparable figures:
Tuition: $30/year for youths (11-17); $60/year for adults (18 and older); $120/year for “Magisters.”
Textbooks: Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard–$20 (required for 1st year); Companion for the Apprentice Wizard–$20 (required for 2nd year).
Robe: (class available on making your own) ($75-$100 to purchase)
Wand: (class available on making your own) ($15-30 to purchase)
Gloves: (not required)
Cloak: (class available on making your own) ($80-$125 to purchase)
Pointy hat: $30 from costume store. (not required)
Tabard: (required: class available on making your own)
The Grey School offers more than 380 classes in all aspects of the magickal artes, in 16 Departments for Majors and Minors, at 7 year-levels. 30 highly-qualified faculty. Graduates are certified as Journeyman Wizards. Summer campouts around the country; many other social activities.
Bright Blessings,
Oberon Zell, Headmaster
Grey School of Wizardry
http://www.GreySchool.com
There are many things wrong with this assessment.
Firstly, you can actually find out the exchange rate of galleons to pounds, because the two books, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, list the price in pounds AND in galleons on the back. They each cost 4.99 GBP / 1 Galleon, 11 Sickles. Hagrid tells Harry there are seventeen silver sickles to a galleon, so each of these books costs about one and eleven seventeenth’s of a galleon (1.647 galleons). Dividing £4.99 by 1.647, gives us an exchange rate (assuming it doesn’t vary, which it may; I’m not sure if the Ministry of Magic has standardized it) of approximately £3.03 to a galleon.
Secondly, we also KNOW what Harry paid for his holly and phoenix tail feather wand–Philosopher’s Stone tells us that flat out. Seven Galleons. So, the wand ACTUALLY cost him about £21.21.
But we’ve also got to remember, when Harry bought his wand, the year was 1991, so if we’re figuring out how much that wand would’ve cost today, we’ll also need to account for inflation.
By visiting the US inflation site, we can do so, but first we’ll need to convert the GBP to USD. So, via http://www.oanda.com/currency/historical-rates/, we find that on July 31st, 1991 (the day Harry went to Diagon Alley to get his first year school supplies–the day of his 11th birthday), the exchange rate was 1.684 (dollars to the pound). Taking this conversion factor, we can calculate that Harry would’ve paid approximately $35.70 for his wand, had he given Mr Ollivander dollars rather than galleons that day.
So now, we go to the US inflation website : http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ .
So, if we put into their calculator the year 1991, $35.70, and the year 2011; we get that today, 20 years later, Harry’s wand would REALLY cost $59.17. Harry bought the equivalent of a $59.17 or (by using the current GBP/USD exchange rate of .6086 pounds to a dollar) a £35.91 wand. Basically he would’ve spent £36 at Ollivander’s, not £100.
Thirdly, we DO know for a fact that some Hogwarts students without means are able to get their hands on stipends and such to pay for school supplies, as Dumbledore tells Tom Riddle in the pensieve:
‘I haven’t got any money.’
‘That is easily remedied,’ said Dumbledore, drawing a leather money-pouch from his pocket. ‘There is a fund at Hogwarts for those who require assistance to buy books and robes. You might have to buy some of your spellbooks and so on second-hand, but–‘ — Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, p. 256, British Bloomsbury edition.
Obviously, Harry has a large enough inheritance from his parents that he doesn’t need to take advantage of said fund, but nevertheless, we know it exists.
Furthermore, we don’t even know if Hogwarts students have to PAY tuition. The books never mention it, but in the final book, Remus Lupin tells Harry, Ron, and Hermione that the Ministry of Magic (under Voldemort’s puppet-government run by Thicknesse) is now making attendance to Hogwarts compulsory; apparently formerly, British wizarding parents could decide to educate their children abroad, or homeschool them at home (although rarely done). This begs the question of, if Hogwarts becomes compulsory, what does one do if he or she is unable to afford tuition? (I’m thinking in particular of the Weasleys as an example here).
Also, despite their exchange regarding money for schoolbooks, Dumbledore and Riddle never talk about tuition expenses.
Furthermore, comparing Hogwarts to universities (yes, I know, not boarding schools, but as there aren’t any wizarding universities–graduates may go into training for a particular field, but there are no formal higher education institutions–I’m going to assume university cost is a better equivalent) we find that British students’ tuitions are FAR LESS EXPENSIVE than in America. Universities’ expenses are much more covered by the state, bringing down the cost of tuition.
Finally, we know that Hogwarts is only ONE school of magic in the UK. All this leads me to believe that it in all likelihood does not charge tuition, or, at the very least, it is significantly reduced from what one would pay to send their muggle child to boarding school. Therefore, it is my assumption that Hogwarts must be funded by the Ministry of Magic in whole or in part, or by a very huge endowment (which, is actually probably more possible than you’d think, seeing as the school’s been around since the ninth or tenth century).
This is the stupidest estimation ever. JKR said in an interview YEARS ago that the exchange rate between muggle money and wizard money was something like 1 galleon = $7.something. I don’t know off the top of my head but the figure is out there. So they could have gone through the books and done a TRUE estimation of cost instead of using stupid, overpriced merchandise from Amazon.com. Also, I think it’s pretty clearly implied that Hogwarts charges tuition, but Dumbledore also explicitly says there is a fund to help those who can’t afford it. Do you really believe Dumbledore, who believes everybody with a drop of magic in their blood has a right to come to school (even a werewolf) would allow a family to be prevented from sending their kids to Hogwarts because of money? Also, I expect the cost of attendance to be a lot lower than muggle boarding schools because they don’t have to worry about paying for maintenance on the building, nor do they have to pay for electricity or anything like that. Their biggest expense is probably food, but the school is ancient and rich and the food is prepared and castle cleaned by a slave race so they don’t even have to pay janitorial or cafeteria workers. Oh you muggles………
It’s not ‘implied that Hogwarts charges tuition’, actually it’s pretty clear that Hogwarts DOESN’T charge a tuition fee, that the tuition fee is gained by public funding by the Ministry of Magic, however students are expected to buy their own books, robes, cauldrons, wands, ect, and that there is a fund that will cover students who can’t afford to buy those things on their own, Dumbledore only states that it will cover his books and robes, because with students “you either are magic, or you aren’t.” The cost would be a lot less if it charged, due to magic and the ease of production.
She also said that 1 Galleon is equal to about five Pounds in muggle currency. Not seven-something, though that might be the equivalence in dollar. And the house elves who work in the kitchens are actually paid, as Dobby actually talked Dumbledore down from a low wage with vacation time to a pittance with no vacation. House elves actually enjoy working, only the abuse Dobby suffered under Lucius was extremely severe to the point where he attacked his master after becoming free in defense of Harry.