By Jason Claffey
jclaffey@fosters.com
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Faced with an unprecedented surge in enrollment, community colleges across the country — including local ones — are having to do something they've rarely done before: say no to applicants.
And the trend is leading traditional four-year colleges to increasingly embrace the "two plus two" model, through which a student earns a four-year degree by spending two years at a community college and two at a four-year institution.
Last year, Maine's community college system turned away 4,000 students from their first program of choice. While New Hampshire's community college system doesn't keep track of the same numbers, an official with the system said its most popular programs are filling up faster than ever.
The trend isn't only local. California's community colleges were forced to turn away 200,000