Despite national rumblings about student loans drying up, Carolinas college students and their families should be in good shape next year, officials say.
More than 50 private lenders across the country have dropped or scaled back student loans. But both Carolinas have nonprofit student loan agencies that say they can cover the needs for 2008-09.
"I think our two states are probably in better shape than most," said Chuck Sanders, president of the S.C. Student Loan Corp.
Now that students have made their college decisions, thousands of families are figuring out how to pay the bills. The College Foundation of North Carolina has been getting about 10,000 calls a month since January, when concerns about loans surfaced.
Fallout from the national mortgage crisis threatens to make it harder to borrow money for school. Just last week, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators called for schools to brace for "a potential student loan credit crunch," warning that if a worst-case scenario materialized it would happen quickly, "much like the subprime mortgage meltdown."
"There was a little bit of panic a couple of weeks ago," said Tarun Malik, vice president and dean of academics at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte.
Since then, Congress and the Federal Reserve have acted to avert a crisis. "I'm beginning to feel a lot more confident," Malik said.
Many schools, from Charlotte's Central Piedmont Community College to UNC Chapel Hill to the private Davidson College, are increasing grants and scholarships while shrinking their reliance on loans. The goal is to help students meet financial need without a crushing debt.
"We discourage loans, from a standpoint of trying to find other options," said CPCC spokeswoman Jerri Haigler.
The number of students receiving scholarships there has more than doubled in the last two years, she said.
Learn More
• The College Foundation of North Carolina makes loans and offers college saving accounts: www.cfnc.org
• The S.C. Student Loan Corp. makes loans for higher education: www.slc.sc.edu
• Federal student aid forms, including a link to help high school juniors get a head start on financial planning, are available at www.fafsa.ed.gov
