"Spring is in the air, and the credit crisis seems to be abating. And what looked like a disaster in the making a few months ago - the market for college loans - now seems more of a minor wreck," The Wall Street Journal reports. "The private market for student loans that aren't backed by the government, however, is still a mess, leaving students who need extra funding potentially stranded in dropout limbo. There will be a few winners, though. Among them, Sallie Mae, which holds its annual meeting Thursday. Sallie Mae is the biggest originator of federal and private loans. The firm, formally known as SLM Corp., could end up with a nearly 40% share of the federal student-loan market as smaller rivals face pressure from problems in the auction-rate securities market, Lehman Brothers analysts say."