SAN BERNARDINO - Your chances of getting into the Ivy League may be better than your shot at Cal State San Bernardino this spring.

The school is scrambling this week to curb enrollment. Refusing new students for the spring quarter will likely be an answer. New students may also be barred from the winter quarter, which begins January 5.

The options will be discussed during a campus meeting this afternoon.

State budget cuts mean the California State University system's 23 campuses must limit enrollment growth to 4.3 percent instead of the 7 percent anticipated for this school year. And the new budget calls for no enrollment growth in the Cal State system or the University of California system in 2004-05.

The Cal State system has already exceeded that new target just based on fall and winter admissions. So even if the university system admitted no new students for spring, it would still overshoot its target.

Other options for reducing growth include tightening admission requirements, turning down out-of-state applicants or forcing community college students to finish all their lower-division classes before transferring to Cal State.

The adjustments will be substantial.

"It won't be an issue of tweaking things,' said Robert McGowan, Cal State San Bernardino's associate vice president for enrollment services.

The change will not affect anyone who has already been accepted to a Cal State campus. But perspective students may be hurt.

San Bernardino Valley College student Tika Porter plans to transfer to Cal State San Bernardino in the fall. But if admission gets tighter, the 29-year-old mom may head out of state for school.

"I'm not just going to sit around and not go to school,' she said. "That would set me back even more. I'd go somewhere else.'

Still, it's a move she hadn't planned on making so soon. This area, McGowan said, is producing twice as many high school and community college graduates than the average Cal State campus enrollment area.

So far this year, the school has offered admission to about 7,100 new students. Not all will accept the offer. But just when the school needs to cut back on enrollment, more are accepting than normally do, McGowan said. Likewise, more current students plan to return this year.

Before this summer, Cal State San Bernardino had planned to have 14,250 full-time-equivalent students at the school. Now the school plans for 13,859.

The total number of students for next year is about 17,000, but the full-time-equivalent figure is adjusted to reflect the number of students who are only taking classes part time.

Even that smaller growth will cost the the school $4.3 million that isn't being covered by the state. That's on top of budget reductions and increased expenses totaling $16.4 million.

A recently announced 30 percent increase in student fees will make up for $8.7 million of the loss.

"If fees hadn't gone up, that would mean we'd serve even fewer students,' DeMauro said.

Local businesses catering to students aren't worried about declining growth. The area around the college has been built up in the last few years with several eateries opening this summer.

'That (extra growth) would have been nice,' Juice It Up! manager Gerry Sustal said.

But, he and others added, steady business is fine.