"The rampaging bear market is doing a real number on many families' college financing plans. But there are ways to tame the beast," MSN Encarta reports. "College admissions experts stress that it's worth being persistent rather than pessimistic. This is one investment that's still safe, they say, promising better returns for a teenager than his mom's last 401(k) statement. 'Students and families don't have the financial resources that they had even a few months ago,' says Haley Chitty, spokesman for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. If there's a bright spot, it may be Congress, which was acting to ensure federal grants and loans remain readily available well before talk of a Wall Street bailout. 'We see some troubling signs, but for the most part student aid is secure,' Chitty says."