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Credit Crisis Hits Students?

Posted by Michael Link on April 17, 2008 at 10:22 AM

The Boston Globe has an interesting story about how students across America are getting hit right now in this economy:

Norton thought he was set when he deposited a $16,000 student-loan check to pay for summer classes and the fall semester. But when he started to pay bills for classes, rent, and other expenses last week, his checks bounced.

He was one of 500 students left in the lurch with the April 7 bankruptcy filing of The Education Resources Institute Inc., a Boston nonprofit that guarantees student loans. And his ordeal is only the latest example of chaos in the college loan market. More than 50 firms have abandoned or cut back their federal or private student loan programs this year, unable to raise money in the financial markets. Yesterday, Citigroup, one of the largest private lenders, said it would stop lending at some schools and end its federal loan consolidations.