Financial Aid and the Banking Crisis: What Now?

Now that the banking system has reached an historic level of turmoil, students across the U.S. have a question that hasn’t gotten much attention yet: what the heck is going to happen to student loans in all of this mess?

Will they be more difficult to get? Will more interest be charged? Is it possible that things won’t change much at all? (No one’s holding their breath much on that one.) And if the government really does go through with a $700 billion bailout, how will this affect student loans?
It stands to reason — perhaps — that students who went through private lenders for students loans are going to have more problems than students who took out government-backed student loans. Whether this is indeed the case remains to be seen.
All of these are questions that we hope Congress will consider during their hearings on the bailout issue. Meanwhile, it seems that news organizations are just starting to discuss this issue. Stay tuned! We’ll be keeping an eye on things around here.