Wide receiver Jake Holmes of Yuba City found out he'd made the catch of a lifetime just before his all-star football game for high school began in early August -- his mother called to let him know he'd been offered freshman admission to UC Davis this fall.

It was the opportunity he had hoped for when he had applied to UC Davis, but now it presented some challenges. Originally admitted to campus in March under the Guaranteed Transfer Option program, the high school graduate had resigned himself to going to American River College for two years before transferring to UC Davis as a junior. He had attended classes for two days and was about to finalize arrangements to live near the Sacramento campus.

What Holmes didn't know is that UC Davis had been huddling over its plan to help ensure a smooth transition for students just like him -- those admitted late in the admissions cycle when the state budget agreement opened up freshman spots.

Last week, Holmes was here learning about UC Davis graduation requirements and selecting classes at a special Summer Advising session for more than 90 freshmen who had accepted such offers of admission.

"I'm really happy to be here," the history major said. "But it's been really hectic. I can't wait for school to start so all this will slow down."

Key offices at UC Davis experienced their own hectic pace. Vacations were canceled and travel plans modified. Even before the budget agreement was final, units from across campus were meeting to develop a plan for admitting the students and looking after arrangements for everything from housing to financial aid.

"We understood that these students would have special needs since it's so late in the process," said Darlene Hunter, associate director of undergraduate admissions and chair of one of the ad hoc GTO committees. "Everyone pulled together to put the students first -- whether it was the academic or the Student Affairs areas of support."

The budget agreement reversed Gov. Schwarzenegger's earlier call for a 10 percent cut in freshman enrollment and directed UC to offer freshman admission to the thousands of applicants diverted to community colleges and other UC eligible students not already admitted to a campus. Asked by the UC Office of the President to offer freshman admission to 500 students, the campus made offers to 155 students who had earlier accepted the GTO offer and 346 others, for a total of 501.

UC Davis was one of four campuses to offer fall admission. "We felt it was of greatest benefit to the students to come in the fall," said Hunter. "We just felt it was more conducive to the positive experience," she added, citing the ability of students to take certain courses in their proper sequence and to adjust socially.

The academic considerations

Hunter said the students were admitted based on academic criteria identifying the highest achieving students in the pool, without regard to college, academic discipline or major. A total of 95, or 18.9 percent, of admitted students expressed their desire to enroll by filing a statement of intent to register, compared to 14 percent for the UC system as a whole. A total of 54 students opted to continue with the GTO program before coming to Davis.

Twenty-three students will be in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the remaining 72 will be split evenly between the College of Letters and Science and the Division of Biological Sciences. With regularly admitted freshman, they will form a class of about 4,400 new freshmen.

Hunter received a few phone calls after the offers went out the weeks of Aug. 2 and 9. "The kids I talked to were overwhelmingly excited. They just wanted to makes sure it was real."

One of the primary goals of Hunter's committee was to advise the new group of students and have them register for classes before other students had their second go at selecting classes, called Pass 2, which began Monday.

Assistant Director Tammy Hoyer of Advising Services, which had just completed its regular schedule of 29 Summer Advising sessions, recalled student advisers and worked with more than 15 units on campus to conduct the additional two-day advising session for the latecomers. Even the Learning Skills Center had to put on an extra day of placement testing in mathematics and chemistry.

Meanwhile, Fred Wood, associate dean for undergraduate education in Letters and Science, has kept an eagle eye on the availability of some introductory classes important for freshmen. As champion of a change this spring that allowed freshman to enroll in 16 units instead of the usual 13.5 in the first go-round, he had thought it might be an even greater challenge to get the GTO students into classes.

However, "it's good news," he said Monday. Even after the students completed their class selection, there were seats available in the high demand areas of introductory English composition, mathematics and Spanish.

With full enrollment in a preparatory class for general chemistry, on the other hand, Wood has asked the Davis Center of Sacramento City College to offer another section of the course. And if a waiting list develops for general chemistry after Pass 2, he'll ask UC Davis' chemistry department to add sections.

Housing, financial aid issues

In a year when spare beds have been made available to continuing, transfer and graduate students, Student Housing will be able to accommodate all the freshmen wanting to live in the residence halls.

It's a mixed bag when it comes to financial aid. Associate Director Katy Maloney of the Financial Aid Office said freshmen who had filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by the deadline last March would still be eligible for financial aid, and disbursements would still be on time for the start of the fall quarter.

Students who hadn't filed the FAFSA by the priority deadline could still be eligible for direct federal loans and Pell grants. Because work-study awards have already been made, none would be available to any of the GTO freshmen.

Back at Summer Advising, Anna Bokides of Stockton sat with a worksheet for selecting classes on her lap. She had already registered for classes at San Joaquin Delta College, and here she was doing the same thing again.

Looking after all the paperwork to transition to Davis in such a short time had been stressful, the communications major said. "But if I didn't come, I think I would have regretted it in the long run. I do see they're making the effort to make it an easy transition, and that's appreciated."