FULLERTON – Faced with an avalanche of student applications, Cal State Fullerton is planning new, tougher admissions policies for 2004 and adding geographic boundaries for the first time that will give preference to students who come from Orange County and portions of Whittier, Walnut, Diamond Bar and Chino.

"We were just deluged with applications this year, many more than we were expecting," said Cal State Fullerton President Milton Gordon. The change still must be approved by the California State University chancellor's office.

California State University, Fullerton, officials began accepting freshman applications in October for this fall but hastily moved to shut off new requests when they received 7,000 online over the Thanksgiving holiday. By Nov. 30, Fullerton had 16,520 freshman applications, compared to 9,201 by the same date in 2000, according to campus statistics.

Overall, Cal State Fullerton received more than 30,000 new applications for enrollment, including freshmen and upper-division transfers, said Vice President for Academic Affairs Ephraim Smith.

"That was a big surprise to us," he said Wednesday, adding that campus officials stopped accepting freshman applications Dec. 5. "We had been anticipating staying open (to new applicants) until January."

He estimated the campus has room for 3,000 to 3,100 freshmen for Fall 2004. Fullerton follows San Diego, Chico and Long Beach state universities in seeking permission from the chancellor's office to apply geographic boundaries, which are designed to ensure that students within their region will be admitted before applicants from other areas are considered.

The change is a watershed for a system historically designed to accept all comers who were in the top one-third of their high school graduating classes, and comes as the state's population growth pushes demand for college classroom space ever higher.

High school seniors who are outside the new boundaries can still apply to Fullerton, but will compete with each other to get in, based on test scores and grades. At Cal State Long Beach, which put the new policy into effect in 2001 for Fall 2002, students outside the boundaries now must have grades and test scores comparable to some of the University of California schools to get in, said Director of Strategic Planning David Dowell.

Cal State Fullerton student body president Alex Lopez said he has reservations about the policy, because he doesn't know how it will affect access to the CSU system by disadvantaged students and ethnic minorities, but the need for it "has become sort of a reality."

"We tried to stay away from it for as long as possible," Lopez said. "The main thing is that students who are not admitted can still get into Dominguez Hills or San Bernardino and have the opportunity to get an education."

Fullerton's top three feeder high schools are in three different counties. In 2002, Diamond Bar High School in Los Angeles County sent the most graduating seniors, followed by Chino's Ayala High in San Bernardino County and Esperanza High School in Orange County.

Smith said Cal State Fullerton drew the boundaries to include all of Orange County in an attempt to protect the campus's ethnic diversity. At Long Beach, student diversity went down after the boundaries were imposed for Fall 2002, Dowell said. As a result, the lines were redrawn this year to try to draw from a more diverse pool of applicants.

CSU campuses around the state had until last Friday to submit reports to the chancellor's office about their enrollment status for next year, including Fullerton's application to use the new enrollment boundaries. Smith said he expects the boundaries to be approved with perhaps "a little tweaking."

CSU Vice Chancellor Allison Jones said he had not reviewed Fullerton's request yet, so he couldn't comment, but that similar programs at Long Beach and San Diego State to favor local graduates have been successful.

Students who have been accepted for Fall 2003 will not be affected by the changes, officials said.

For 2004, Cal State Fullerton will accept applications only between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30, Smith said.

The campus will set aside 275 freshman slots for students who have overcome disadvantages, or who can demonstrate special talents or achievements, according to the plan.

The university's total enrollment has grown from 20,000 students five years ago to more than 30,000 today.