Mi amiga universitaria quiere ser candidata para ese puesto.

In Spain, mi amiga universitaria is usually understood as:

• a friend who is (or was) a university student, and
• typically also a friend you know through university.

So it often combines both ideas: she studies (or studied) at university, and that’s the context in which she’s your friend.

If you specifically want to highlight the origin of the friendship, many people in Spain would also say mi amiga de la universidad (“my friend from university”), which focuses more on where you met than on her status as a student.

Yes, you can say mi amiga de la universidad, and it’s very natural.

Subtle difference:

• mi amiga universitaria: emphasizes that she is/was a university student.
• mi amiga de la universidad: emphasizes that she is a friend you met at university, regardless of whether you’re still students now.

In everyday speech in Spain, amiga de la universidad is extremely common when you mean “my friend from uni.”

Most adjectives in Spanish, especially descriptive ones like universitaria, usually go after the noun:

• mi amiga universitaria = my university friend

Putting it before (✗ mi universitaria amiga) is not normal here and would sound wrong or at best very poetic/forced.

General rule:

• Normal description → noun + adjective: coche rojo, casa grande, amiga universitaria.
• Adjectives before the noun are reserved for specific cases (e.g. some very common adjectives like bueno, malo, gran, nuevo with special meanings), not for universitaria in this context.

Span­ish adjectives and many nouns change form to agree with the gender (and number) of the person:

• amiga (female friend) → feminine, so the adjective must also be feminine: universitaria
• For a male friend, you’d say: mi amigo universitario

Full contrast:

• Female: Mi amiga universitaria quiere ser candidata…
• Male: Mi amigo universitario quiere ser candidato…

So amiga / universitaria / candidata all match in being feminine.

Spanish normally matches the grammatical gender of role nouns to the person’s gender:

• A woman: candidata
• A man: candidato

In standard usage in Spain, if your friend is female, candidata is the expected form. Using candidato for a woman would sound strange or old-fashioned in most contexts, unless you are making a very specific stylistic or political point about “generic masculine,” which is not typical in everyday speech.

With ser + a profession / role / status, Spanish usually omits the indefinite article when the noun is not modified:

• Quiere ser candidata. = “She wants to be a candidate.”
• Es médica. = “She is a doctor.”
• Soy profesor. = “I am a teacher.”

You add the article if there is a modifier:

• Quiere ser una buena candidata.
• Es una médica excelente.

So here candidata is a simple role noun after ser, so no article is used.

Yes, quiere ser una candidata is grammatically correct, but the nuance shifts slightly:

• quiere ser candidata: neutral, standard way to say “she wants to be a candidate.”
• quiere ser una candidata: can sound a bit more emphatic or specific, like “she wants to be one of the candidates,” or you are contrasting types of candidates (e.g. una candidata valiente).

In most neutral contexts, a native speaker would naturally say quiere ser candidata.

All of these are possible, but they’re not identical.

• para ese puesto (original)

  • Focuses on purpose/goal: she wants to be a candidate for that position.
  • ese points to a specific position the speakers have in mind.

• para el puesto

  • Slightly more general: “for the position.”
  • Without ese, it sounds a bit less deictic, more like “for the position we’re talking about in general.”

• a ese puesto

  • Much less common with ser candidata.
  • a tends to be used more with verbs of movement / applying:
    
    • presentarse a ese puesto (to apply for that position)
    • optar a ese puesto (to go for that position)

So with ser candidata, para ese puesto is the most natural.

Demonstratives in Spanish signal distance, both physical and psychological:

• este puesto = “this position” (close to the speaker, or very “current / here”).
• ese puesto = “that position” (a bit more distant, often the one you both know about, but not right “here”).
• aquel puesto = “that position over there / that more distant one” (often more remote in space or time).

In many contexts, Spanish speakers use ese for something recently mentioned or mutually known, even if there’s no real physical distance. So ese puesto fits well when both speakers know which position is being discussed.

Yes. In Spanish, subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros…) are usually omitted because the verb ending already indicates the subject:

• quiere already tells us it’s he/she/you-formal from context.
• The noun mi amiga universitaria makes the subject explicit anyway.

You can add ella for emphasis or contrast:

• Ella quiere ser candidata, no él.

But in a neutral sentence, Mi amiga universitaria quiere ser candidata… is the most natural form.

In Mi amiga universitaria quiere ser candidata, universitaria works as an adjective modifying amiga: “my university friend.”

In Mi amiga es universitaria, universitaria acts as a noun meaning “a university student”:

• Mi amiga universitaria = my university friend
• Mi amiga es universitaria = my friend is a university student

Spanish often uses words that can be both adjectives and nouns, depending on position and structure.

Yes, you can say mi compañera de universidad, and it’s also very common in Spain.

Differences:

• amiga = “friend” → implies a closer, more personal relationship.
• compañera de universidad = “university classmate / colleague” → someone you share classes or a course with, not necessarily a close friend.

So:

• mi amiga universitaria / mi amiga de la universidad → she’s your friend.
• mi compañera de universidad → your classmate or fellow student at university, maybe not a friend outside that context.