A succession of bad news over the past two weeks has turned the college plans of California high school seniors upside down.

The Community College League of California announced that proposed state budget cuts at community colleges could drive away 262,000 students.

Four days later, California State University administrators said they plan to eliminate 10,000 admission spots for the upcoming school year.

Two days after that, University of California regents warned they may limit freshman enrollments next fall.

The timing couldn't be much worse for high school students in the thick of the college application season – Sunday is the deadline for many students applying to CSU and UC.

Students who already were considering scaling back their college plans because of shaky family finances say the barrage of proposed cuts has punched holes in their safety nets.

"The most surprising thing is that a lot of kids and their parents don't know what's in store for them," said Teresa Schmutte, chair of the counseling department at Pleasant Grove High in Elk Grove.

Some private colleges are seeing a surge in applications as opportunities appear to dry up at public schools.

"What I think is going on nationally is that students are applying to more schools because of the uncertainty in the economy," said Robert Alexander, associate provost for enrollment at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

Deadlines, standards tightening

Daniel Williams, a senior at Pleasant Grove High School, thought he had met all the requirements to be accepted at Chico State, a school he's wanted to attend since his freshman year.

His mother, Gina, a counseling tech at his school, helped him maintain a high enough eligibility index – a combination of grade point average and ACT or SAT scores – to be admitted.

But on Nov. 17, California State University officials said the state budget crisis had prompted them to cut enrollment by 10,000 students for the 2009-2010 school year. They pushed up application deadlines for the 23-campus system and raised entrance requirements for freshmen at the most popular campuses.

Campuses overenrolled this year will stop accepting applications after Sunday. All CSU campuses will close admissions for first-time freshmen by March 1 or sooner, depending on space.

In order to control enrollment, campuses can raise the eligibility index. That's what's tripping up Williams.

Gina Williams said there were rumblings at the start of November that CSU might be tightening admissions. Her son's counselor got a call from a Chico State administrator around Nov. 1, warning that if the CSU system declared statewide impaction – that it had more students than it could accommodate – Daniel's qualifications would be considered borderline.

"I was shocked and felt sick," Gina Williams said. "Part of my frustration is that this is what I do (counseling). I know about all this stuff."

Daniel Williams is gearing up to take the ACT again next month to see if he can improve his score. "I'm still hoping I can get in (to Chico State)," he said.

UCs may reject first choice

Dan Hill, a senior at Oak Ridge High in El Dorado Hills, has his sights set on Northwestern University. He plans to study journalism.

He's pretty confident he'll be accepted at Northwestern or another of his out-of-state choices. But part of his fall-back plan was to attend a UC campus, and that's now causing unanticipated stress.

During a meeting last week in San Francisco, UC regents warned that they are enrolling 10,000 more students than the state budget supports.

They stopped short of limiting enrollment or raising student fees. But UC system President Mark Yudof suggested the UCs might even out their enrollment by denying admission to students' first-choice campuses and referring them to under-enrolled campuses such as UC Merced.

Even if he's accepted at one of his out-of-state universities, Hill said finances could force him to stay in California. His father, Patrick Hill, said the college fund set up when Daniel was born "has been taken to the woodshed in the recent economic calamity."

Call The Bee's Walter Yost, (916) 321-1146.