The popular kid on campus, community colleges. I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles for the fourth fall in a roke. Enrollment in community colleges was up, this time up 3% from a year earlier.

Now, that's according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Why is interesting. Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes has that.

41-year-old Titus Dominic has always loved to cook.

So this fall, he enrolled in a culinary program at Columbus State Community College in Ohio.

The ultimate goal would be at some point to be able to own restaurant.

Dominic worked as a cook on an aircraft carrier

when he was in the Navy years ago. For the last decade, he's worked as a commercial truck driver.

He hopes this program will launch his new career. At some point, I have to pull that thread and say

it's time to go for it. More people are doing the same as Dominic, going to community college with the

aim of getting a particular job. There's been an increase in people seeking associates degrees.

And Matthew Holtapel, who leads the research team at the National Student Clearinghouse,

says there's been an even bigger rise in short job-focused certificate programs.

It speaks to students of all ages, seeing the value of these short-term credentials.

There's a wage payoff that students are seeing, and they see it as clear steps toward

their career or the job that they want.

Another driver of growth, more high school students are now taking community college classes.

I think this kind of program helps students get into college sooner, so it help students learn they can do college work and they can succeed in college.

Holtz-Apple points out that community colleges aren't necessarily gaining at the expense of other schools.

There has also been an uptick in the number of students going to four-year colleges.

I'm Stephanie Hughes for Marketplace.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

has quietly removed web pages that used to say mobile phones are not a health risk. The Wall Street

...