"[Students] face an increasingly unfriendly marketplace where lenders - made skittish by the subprime meltdown and resulting credit crunch - have either significantly tightened their lending requirements or have suspended student financing altogether," SmartMoney reports. "Even though college loans may be harder to secure, students aren't completely out of luck. In fact, federal Stafford and Plus loans are still widely available. Picking up some of the slack left by lenders that exited the market, the Department of Education said last month that it will increase the amount students could borrow in Direct Loans (Stafford and Plus loans). In addition, Congress is reviewing legislation to allow federal home loan banks to redirect surplus funds toward student loan financing, thereby encouraging more lenders to participate in the marketplace."