Two-Year Colleges Are Booming

by Arlene Levinson WHEN VERONICA RUIBAL returned to class at Nassau Community College in September, she trained at one hospital, worked nights at another, battled Long Island traffic to shuttle her toddler to day care, and, she hoped, would find a few spare moments for her husband. The 25-year-old full-time student smiles wearily at the thought. “I know,” she says. “It’s a lot.” But so is the payoff: an associate’s degree Ruibal hopes will land her a higher-paying job as a technician in radiology. When 14 million undergraduates surged onto college campuses this fall, 44 percent were at the country’s 1,132 community colleges like Nassau, in […]