Monica Morales' goal during high school was to attend UC Santa Cruz, and she worked hard to get there -- great grades, community service, varsity soccer and extracurricular activities.

Despite the University of California's long-standing promise of taking all those who are qualified, the reality that unfolded this year was a cold slap in the face for the Burlingame senior at Mills High School.

Morales was one of 7,600 qualified students told recently by UC officials that their acceptance to a UC campus was being deferred and that they would be guaranteed admittance only after completing two years of work at a community college.

"It feels like all those years were wasted. I could have half-assed it and ended up in the same place," Morales said. "I took honors courses and Advanced Placement courses. It is a disappointment."

Her misfortune is rooted in California's continuing budget crisis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's directive that UC pare back its enrollment as a cost- cutting measure.

Although she was accepted at several California State University campuses, Morales is reluctantly leaning toward accepting UC's offer because she doesn't want to jeopardize her chance at UC Santa Cruz, which has promised to take her after she attends community college.

But she is going to miss out on the dormitory living and the college experience that cannot be replicated at a community college, said Morales' mother, Susan Laurin.

As a consolation, Morales' parents are thinking of renting her an apartment in Aptos while she attends Cabrillo College so she can live away from home.

Students in the new transfer program were promised they could transfer as juniors into a specific campus, although it may not be their top choice. UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz offered a guaranteed transfer to every UC-eligible student in their pool who was rejected. Students who applied to other campuses, such as UC Berkeley, may not have received a guaranteed transfer into the campus of their choice, but they were at least offered admission to UC Merced, which is expected to open in fall 2005. However, UC Merced will open with a limited number of majors, so many students who have that as their only UC option may have to change majors or find an alternative outside the UC system.

Students need to decide by June 1 what they will do.

UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman said UC hoped this would be the only year it would have to turn away eligible students. In doing so this year, the university broke a 44-year pledge based on the California Master Plan to accept all eligible California students.

"While we couldn't admit all eligible students because of the enrollment cuts, because of the budget difficulties, we have worked with the community colleges to ensure a path to UC," Eisenman said. "We did the best we could."

Although Schwarzenegger has proposed waiving community college fees for students diverted from the UC system, that is no consolation for many parents who would gladly pay for the UC education.

The whole thing is exasperating for parents like Suzanne Sloane of Oakland, who expected to know by this month where her daughter would be going to college.

Her daughter was deferred from UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego and rejected from UCLA's theater school.

"It has been a huge part of our year, the process of applying and auditioning and doing the college tours,'' Sloane said. "We thought we would get to April, and we will know, and that will be off our plate. It is like starting all over. It is very hard, and the rejections take their toll."

Livermore parent Don Evans said that as a lifelong California resident he couldn't help feeling frustrated that his daughter had been turned away from UC Davis despite being qualified.

"It's just kind of heartbreaking to see," said Evans, who works as a quality control technician for a large East Bay contractor. "She's worked her butt off for four years to get really good grades."

But his daughter, Lindsey Evans, an 18-year-old senior at Granada High School in Livermore, does not have any hard feelings and is going to take UC's offer.

"It's not like it's personal. The state has to make cuts," said Evans, who had a 3.52 GPA and a score of 1200 on her SAT. According to the UC data, those students who were redirected to community college under the "Guaranteed Transfer Option" had an average grade point average of 3.46, compared with a 3. 8 average for admitted students.

Evans said she was initially disappointed when she received the letter earlier this month saying she had not gotten into UC Davis, but she has since adjusted to the idea of attending a community college.

Evans wants to go to medical school and become a pediatrician, and will transfer to UC Davis in two years because the school has an excellent pre-med program, she said.

But one concern of many of the parents and students, and of those in the community college system, is the strain it will put on an already overcrowded two-year system, which accommodates 2.9 million full- and part-time students at 109 campuses or about a half-million full-time equivalent students.

The students deferred from UC will have to jockey for classes, and in addition the fear is that they will end up pushing out the students who have traditionally gone to community college.

"How are they going to accommodate this?" said May Choi, a college counselor at Lowell High School in San Francisco, which had a number of students redirected to the community colleges. "The community colleges are going to be very impacted if the students accept this."