MSNBC has this Associated Press story: Salle boss warns of student loan ‘train wreck.’

A snippet:

Top executives are holding “daily deliberations” about just how long the nation’s largest student lender can afford to sacrifice its bottom line for the sake of college-bound Americans, Sallie Mae CEO Albert J. Lord said Thursday.

Lord told analysts on an earlier conference call: “We’ve been predicting something of a train wreck” in mid-2008 without prompt changes in a market hit by fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis and cuts last year in federal subsidies to student lenders.

What does that mean to you college students and parents?

Well, you might be surprised how many student loans are handled by Sallie Mae. Look at your loan papers.

And there’s more in the story:

Bank of America Corp. said Thursday it would stop private student loans, but continue offering government-backed loans. On Wednesday, Citigroup Inc. said its Student Loan Corp. subsidiary will temporarily stop issuing loans to students at schools where profits have not been satisfactory.

That means even if you are a returning college student, you will need to ask a lot of questions during loan processing time about whether you have a federal or private loan, who the loan is going to be serviced by and how the credit crisis may affect your financing plan.

And in the meantime, keep looking for any financial options you may have that will keep those loan amounts down.