# Where do you think wizarding schools are located? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842 "2013-01-20T22:59:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/41 "2013-01-21T20:47:31Z")
Besides the traditional schools, the American wizarding education system were early adopters of distance learning, first offering (often suspect) degrees by Owl post, and then in the 1960s some enterprising fellows used ley lines, magical portals, high end artifacts together in unconventional ways to create the magic equivalent of the internet (cue Wizard Lolcats, probably in the form of actual talking felines). Currently, what’s being taught online don’t require a lot of idiot-with-a-wand babysitting, but I’ve heard that they’re putting together roaming classes using the Room of Requirement. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/42 "2013-01-21T22:34:43Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > This stumped me, too. But I do think The Black Hills, being as mystical as they’re reputed to be, have to be the place. Either Rapid City or in the interior near Spearfish > > Perhaps the mountain [Inyan Kara](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inyan_Kara_Mountain). I think not. _Paha Sapa_ has been drained of all its magical essence by the white man, it has become little more than a really pretty theme park. I would be more inclined toward somewhere in the Enchanted Circle, probably west of Eagle Nest. The mountain vibrates with such a power that you can feel it from as far away as Tres Piedras, La Junta, Mora or Cimmaron. Ask any Taoseño, they will tell you there is a power up there, seems like a perfect location for a school. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/43 "2013-01-22T00:27:47Z")
More from Rawlings: Vaduz castle in Lichtstenstein Beau Batons is in Dijon (?) one in Luxumberg (beat England in quidditch) one in Brazil (Bill’s penpal) one in Uganda (beat Scotland in quidditch) one in Peru one in the middle East (the flying carpet exporter) It says Hogwarts, Beau Batons and Durmstrang are the biggest FORMAL schools in Europe. But there are surely smaller primary schools and colleges. And with wizards, home schooling makes a lot of sense. Hogwarts likely contains 280 students (40 per batch.) That puts the wizard population in Britain 1,500 and 3,000 if we use standard demography. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/44 "2013-01-22T01:20:48Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Hogwarts likely contains 280 students (40 per batch.) That puts the wizard population in Britain 1,500 and 3,000 if we use standard demography. I recall hearing Rowling say that the student body of Hogwarts was shy a thousand. When you look at the dining hall in the movies, there appear to be five to seven hundred students shown. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/45 "2013-01-22T03:02:12Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > … > It says Hogwarts, Beau Batons and Durmstrang are the biggest FORMAL schools in Europe. But there are surely smaller primary schools and colleges. And with wizards, home schooling makes a lot of sense. > … It would be sensible to assume that, but all indications are to the contrary. There are no magical schools before a child enters Hogwarts. That leaves a mystery as to what those kids form magical families were doing all that time since they obviously didn’t go to regular schools either since they often have no idea about muggle life. Seemed like if you flunk out or get expelled from Hogwarts, that’s the end of your career in magic. And there are no colleges either. Once they leave Hogwarts they begin their vocations. Another mystery is why in the movies the Ministry is so big and busy with wizards. Here’s the math I go by. Harry had 4 other boys in his dorm. Those were all the Gryffindor boys for that year. We can’t even name that many from the girls dorm. Make that 10 kids per house per year. It comes out to 40 kids per year and 280 in the school at one time. If you estimate wizards remain active for 100 years, there would only be around 4,000 wizards in the U.K. If you want to say Hogwarts has 1,000 students, that’s 4 times what I estimated. Still not that many. And for some reason most of them hang out at the Ministry. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/46 "2013-01-22T03:15:10Z")
The old methods of guilds, exclusive apprenticeship, and direct tutoring are sure to have been stronger among wizards than muggles. We’re talking about something as potent as magical power here. Required enrollment to Hogwarts to me looks more like fiscal measures by the government (like during the time of Voldemort.) For muggle borns, there’s no other choice. Still, arcane muggle skills like swordfighting, the arts, and even secret languages were often kept within a family. That should translate to magic as well. I like to think formal magic schooling grew with the statute of secrecy and the need for governance. But then, schools predate the statute so I’m likely wrong. Britain overall is not that populous a country. But there are wizarding communities in even smaller countries like Uganda and Luxumberg. So in big countries like the US, Germany, Japan, and others, there should be a lot of schools and guilds. There is a Magic College in the UK: it’s the Department of Mysteries, Ministry of Magic. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/47 "2013-01-22T04:05:39Z")
The Canadian school of _research_ magic is under the peak of Mount Thor in the High Arctic. There is a satellite facility on Victoria Island (not coincidentally, the location of the North Magnetic Pole). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/48 "2013-01-22T04:06:56Z")
Somewhere in the middle of Lake Superior. The _Edmund Fitzgerald_ sank when it got too close. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/49 "2013-01-22T04:12:58Z")
The tradition of US schools of magic came over with the various waves of immigrants. You will the buttoned up English equivalents in Salem, as already noted. The French and Spanish influenced the school outside of New Orleans in the bayou (just take the right fan boat to get there - you will know the one). The school in Chicago is off of Lower Wacker - why else would you have an “underground” road system in a major city after all? Moving West created new locations: The Muir School of Magic is underneath the Hetch Hetchy reservoir outside of San Francisco. Muir pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes by “fighting” to save that valley, when in truth he was building the new location. The Los Angeles campus is in the Santa Monica Mountains. You just take Coldwater Canyon, three lefts, two rights and a shortcut down an unmarked road to find it. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/50 "2013-01-22T05:12:14Z")
You’re not suspecting the Hearst Ranch? That’s where I’d locate. Also the Winchester House. Hogwart’s shifting doors and stairs are amateurish by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/51 "2013-01-23T00:25:07Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Here’s the math I go by. > Harry had 4 other boys in his dorm. Those were all the Gryffindor boys for that year. This seems an unwarranted conclusion. They have 4 boys in Harry’s dorm room. Doesn’t mean Gryffindor doesn’t have several rooms for each year boys. Sure, we only get a few named people that we pay attention to, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t others, just that they aren’t important to the story being told. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/52 "2013-01-23T06:32:48Z")
^ Likely only 5 Gryffindor boys in Harry’s year. I’m basing this on the attrition of enrollment following their OWLs. Only 4 students from R and S made it to potions NEWT, while 3 from G and only 1 from H made it. Still total enrollment could easily swing from 280 to 1,000 especially with a small base population. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/53 "2013-01-24T03:13:33Z")
That’s true. Harry’s generation may be like Gen X-- awkwardly sandwiched in between the larger Boomers and Millennials. Still, if I were going to predict a boom year for wizarding births, I’d pick the year after Voldemort killed the Potters and Harry survived. Wartime births are always low because soldiers are off at war (less of an issue here) and because people choose not to bring kids into the world during hard times (more of an issue). Harry’s cohort may be unusually small. We don’t know more people in Ginny’s year or younger, though. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842/54 "2013-01-24T03:48:04Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Where do you think wizarding schools are located? Given where most practitioners of the Dark Arts live, I’d say in trailer parks. Me: If black magic works, why do so many of the people who do it live in double-wides? Wife: Maybe they lived in single-wides before. FTR: I have always had a soft spot for manufactured housing and think it’s a great idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-do-you-think-wizarding-schools-are-located/647842.md?page=2)