Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's idea for saving $24.8 million next year by rerouting 10 percent of University of California freshmen to community colleges may hit a snag: The students may not want to go.

In his budget proposal, the governor called on the UC and California State University systems to redirect 10 percent of the freshman applicants who meet their eligibility requirements to community colleges.

But UC-Berkeley's experience with offering deferred admission to UC-eligible freshmen suggests that many may bypass community college and go where they can have a four-year college experience.

While the state will save some money, deferred students who opt for a private university or go out of state are likely to pay more in tuition than they were counting on.

Being redirected to a community college holds little allure to Bay Area students such as San Jose resident Dan Feldman, 17, a Branham High School senior who has applied to several UC campuses, one CSU campus and also is looking out of state.

He wants the full college experience -- living away from home, getting attached to one school.

``I think I am qualified to go straight to a four-year university,'' said Feldman, who has high SAT scores and a grade-point average exceeding 4.0. ``When I have worked as hard as I have, I don't want to settle for something.''

When he was a high school freshman, Feldman's counselors told him to study hard, get good grades, become involved, and he'd be able to get into one of California's public universities. ``It's kind of like a bargain,'' he said.

No matter what the deferred students ultimately decide, the governor's plan to serve 3,200 fewer UC and 4,200 fewer CSU freshmen will save money, said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the state Department of Finance. The state subsidizes UC and CSU students at a much higher rate than it subsidizes community college students.

But there are incentives to go the community college route, Palmer said.

``Under the governor's plan, students will have their community college fees waived and a slot guaranteed at a specific UC or CSU campus when they graduate,'' he explained. ``When you are looking at the cost of higher education, that's a powerful incentive, as most parents or students will tell you.''

Palmer noted that the budget earmarks $500 per deferred student for UC and CSU to provide counseling for them at the community colleges to make their transfers as smooth as possible. And the budget provides the community colleges with funding for 3 percent enrollment growth, in part to help them accommodate the deferred freshmen.

Still, some UC officials are skeptical about some aspects of the plan.

``We are looking at how well rerouting will work and whether it will save money,'' said Judson King, the UC system's provost and vice president for academic affairs. He said the savings to the state may not be as great as estimated because transfer students from community colleges typically take a term or two longer to graduate once they arrive at UC, compared with students who started there as freshmen. Many students can't get some of the courses they need for their majors in community colleges, so they start out at UC slightly behind ``native'' students.

And there may be additional costs for community colleges as they gear up to become UC feeder schools, he said. Some colleges may not be able to afford to offer all the courses that students need to transfer into certain majors.

Currently, about 30 of the state's 108 community colleges produce 70 percent of the transfer students.

Finally, if UC postpones admitting the deferred students for two years, King said, ``will the seats be there when they are ready to transfer?''

The biggest question, though, is whether the students will go for the deal at all.

``I think it will be very, very hard to convince students who are UC-eligible to go to a community college,'' said Barbara Bodine, vice president of the Alumni Associations of UC and an ex-officio member of the board of regents. ``I'm willing to bet that most students who are UC-eligible, if they don't get in will go somewhere else.''

That has been the case at UC-Berkeley, which receives nearly five applications for each freshman offered a spot. The campus already has a program that offers UC-eligible students deferred admission after they complete their lower division studies at community college. Unlike the governor's proposal, the student is guaranteed entrance to the system, but not to Berkeley.

In recent years, only about 7 percent of the 12,000 eligible students invited to take part in the Berkeley program have expressed an interest in it. The rest go elsewhere, with the vast majority opting for another UC campus and most of the rest going to private colleges and universities or to schools out of state.

UC also has a new ``dual admissions'' program that guarantees admission to a particular campus for some students who do not meet UC eligibility requirements as freshmen. The students must go to community college for the first two years and meet the agreed upon transfer requirements.

But fewer students than expected have applied for dual admissions. King said preliminary estimates are that just 492 students have submitted applications for the coming fall at the seven campuses that serve undergraduates.

With the budget proposal only one week old, Palmer said, there are many details that need to be resolved.

``We will work with the systems on the issues that come with these kinds of changes of direction,'' he said. ``First, let's agree how do we want to go here and can we make it work as seamlessly as possible.''