Autonomous Community Popularity Contest

[Enteren]

So while I was stumbling around in Profex the other day, trying to make sure my application was OK, I found that they had posted the data for last year's applicants - nationalities, placements, acceptance status etc.  I was curious about which places were the most popular so I exported the table into Excel and ran the numbers.

Sorry for the lack of a table. I tried to get it to work but it doesn't seem to want to.

First off, these are the pure numbers of accepted and renounced applicants. Please remember that Renounced doesn't necessarily mean that the applicant was rejected outright, but that they also could have either neglected to finish their application by the deadline; or they were accepted and either ignored their acceptance or passed on it due to change of plans.

Aceptada   2657   72%
Renuncia   1013   28%
                    3670   

The total number of participants for 2010-2011 from ALL countries seems to be around 2657.

Out of the original  3670 to apply, almost 75% were Americans.  After that was Britain at 9.05%, France at 6.38%, Canada at 4.03% and Australia at 1.8%. Many other countries had applicants as well, but the numbers for those are all less than 1%.

The following data is for ESTADO UNIDENSE applicants who were listed as  ACEPTADA. 

Estado Unidense

Community              Aceptada               %
Andalucía                          530 - 27%
Madrid                                511 - 26%
Galicia                               183 - 9%
Castilla la Mancha          119 - 6%
Extremadura                       89 - 5%
Islas Baleares                     87 - 5%
Castilla León                      83 - 4%
País Vasco                          77 - 4%
Cataluña                              69 - 4%
Murcia                                  43 - 2%
La Rioja                               40 - 2%
Valencia                              27 - 1%
Aragón                                26 - 1%
Cantabria                           26 - 1%
Asturias                              18 - 1%
Islas Canarias                     1 - 0%
Ceuta y Melilla                    0 - 0%
Navarra                                0 - 0%
Total                              1929 - 100%

Obviously, it's no surprise that Madrid is very high on the list, as its the capital.  However, I was very surprised to find Andalucia up at number one. Does anyone know why its so popular? I know there's a lot of cultural history there, but is there something else I'm missing?

I was also surprised to find that Barcelona had relatively few applicants. It's a big, international city, so I assumed many people would be trying to go there. 

For applicants of 2011-2012, what places have you chosen and why?

[beachp]

The following data is for ESTADO UNIDENSE applicants who were listed as  ACEPTADA. 

Estado Unidense

Community              Aceptada               %
Andalucía                          530 - 27%
Madrid                                511 - 26%
Galicia                               183 - 9%
Castilla la Mancha          119 - 6%
Extremadura                       89 - 5%
Islas Baleares                     87 - 5%
Castilla León                      83 - 4%
País Vasco                          77 - 4%
Cataluña                              69 - 4%
Murcia                                  43 - 2%
La Rioja                               40 - 2%
Valencia                              27 - 1%
Aragón                                26 - 1%
Cantabria                           26 - 1%
Asturias                              18 - 1%
Islas Canarias                     1 - 0%
Ceuta y Melilla                    0 - 0%
Navarra                                0 - 0%
Total                              1929 - 100%

Obviously, it's no surprise that Madrid is very high on the list, as its the capital.  However, I was very surprised to find Andalucia up at number one. Does anyone know why its so popular? I know there's a lot of cultural history there, but is there something else I'm missing?

I was also surprised to find that Barcelona had relatively few applicants. It's a big, international city, so I assumed many people would be trying to go there. 

For applicants of 2011-2012, what places have you chosen and why?

Your confusing popularity with available openings. I believe Andalucia has the most openings and that's why it has the highest number of acceptances. You don't know how many put Cataluna (or any other region) as their first choice. In comparison to Madrid/Andalucia there are far fewer spots for North Americans in Cataluna. Also, when you apply to Cataluna you can be sent anywhere in that region and it's usually not the city of  Barcelona.  People like Andalucia for it's warmer weather throughout the year, the beauty, the culture , the people, the festivals, the nightlife, the food, being closer to the coast and the cheaper cost of living (accept for Seville capital).

[Y Tu Que?]

Yeah, those numbers you came up with do not reflect the most requested - they reflect where people actually got placed, despite what they may have requested. Andalucia has the largest number of openings due in part to the fact that they team up with CIEE who places all their paying participants in Andalucia.

[Enteren]

That's really interesting! I never realized that there was a set limit for each community.

So do you think that there is a significant discrepancy between the placement numbers and the request numbers? As in, people requesting Galicia and instead being placed in Andalucia, etc?

Does anyone have an idea of the number of openings for the communities or how they determine that?

[gski]

Obviously, it's no surprise that Madrid is very high on the list, as its the capital.  However, I was very surprised to find Andalucia up at number one. Does anyone know why its so popular? I know there's a lot of cultural history there, but is there something else I'm missing?

The warm(er) winters are a big selling point.

[gski]

Does anyone have an idea of the number of openings for the communities or how they determine that?

As for your first question, that's tough to answer, especially since the Ministry itself doesn't know exactly.  People get called up from the waitlist in October and November.  Madrid and Andalucia are historically the highest, though. 

Individual schools request an Auxiliar and there is a whole process that they go through to get one.  I'm sure the Ministry of Education has some weird formula for who gets one and when.  However, the autonomous regions themselves handle all the placements and school management, though the Ministry may influence the total number in each region.  Not all schools that request an Auxiliar get one, even though there are schools with as many as 3 Auxiliares!