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 Garden City, N.Y. The publicly supported two-year schools started as a handful of junior colleges just over a century ago, then exploded after World War II to offer baby boomers a lower-cost education closer to home. A generation later, they're serving baby boomers' children. Community college enrollment will increase 12 to 14 percent over the next five to 10 years as a result of the baby boom "echo," said Jacqueline Woods, the Department of Education's chief liaison to community colleges.

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