SAN FRANCISCO -- Acceptance letters will soon arrive in the mail for students heading to University of California campuses in the fall, but the tuition those students will pay remains a great unknown.

UC officials are still tinkering with fee schedules for next year, trying to determine how they can balance tuition hikes proposed by the governor with what they feel is best for students and the university's pocketbook.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says UC should raise undergraduate fees by 10 percent and graduate fees by 40 percent. He also wants to raise fees for out-of-state students and those in professional schools, such as business, medicine and law.

The hike would raise undergrad fees from $4,984 to $5,482 and would raise graduate fees from $5,219 to $7,307.

But UC officials say the proposed grad fee hike is too steep and will harm their ability to attract the best-qualified applicants. They're looking at options to keep the grad fees down, probably by raising undergraduate fees above what the governor has proposed.

None of the options is a good one, said UC President Robert Dynes, but the "40 percent (graduate fee increase) is really untenable."

Alternative fee schedules presented Wednesday to UC's governing Board of Regents include holding the graduate increase to 20 percent -- taking the fees to $6,269 -- but raising undergraduate fees by 15 percent, to $5,734. Another would raise undergrad fees by 13 percent, up to $5,632, and grad fees by 25 percent, to $6,524.

Regents will take a vote on the proposed fee increases in coming weeks, possibly by late April, but more likely sometime in May, said Larry Hershman, UC's vice president for budget.

But the clock is ticking, since students and their families will soon start budget planning of their own for the coming school year, which begins in August at most campuses.

Randal Blair, a second-year student at Hastings College of Law, said he can't afford an increase and told regents the university would lose students.

You're pricing yourself into the private school range, he said.

UC officials say the fee hikes are a necessity in the state's budget climate. Schwarzenegger, trying to trim a $16 billion state deficit, has proposed deep cuts to both the UC and California State University systems.

UC is looking at a $370 million cut from its $2.7 billion state-funded budget next year.

Hershman said the cumulative impact of four years of state budget cuts have pushed UC to "a crisis point" and is eroding the quality of the 10-campus system, which serves abut 200,000 students. UC has watched its state-funded budget slip by 16 percent over the past four years, while enrollment has climbed 16 percent, Hershman said.

The situation at CSU is similarly dire. CSU will absorb a $240 million cut next year under the governor's proposal and is also considering fee increases of 10 percent for undergraduates and 40 percent for graduate students.

Those hikes would take CSU undergraduate fees to $2,251 from $2,046 and grad fees to $3,158 from $2,256. A CSU spokeswoman said CSU trustees will most likely vote on the increases in May.

Besides the fee hikes, Schwarzenegger has proposed reducing freshmen enrollment by 10 percent at both UC and CSU, reducing financial aid and eliminating funding for UC outreach programs.