First it was the sub prime mortgage mess. Then came rising problems with auto loans and credit card debt. And now, the latest sector to feel a credit squeeze is the student loan market.

College students still have a variety of ways to get loans to pay for their tuition. But there's little doubt that 2008 is shaping up as the toughest year to shop for an education loan in quite some time.

Chain Of Lenders That's because several moving parts have to work for the students to get access to loans, and right, every player in the process is pulling back out of fear that consumers have borrowed far more than they will ever be capable of paying back. The government, the banks and the public and private loan companies who lend money to college students are all looking for ways to reduce their risk - and that could be bad for students who need help paying for tuition.

PLUS and Stafford are two of the most popular loans used by college students. They're usually provided to the student at a low interest rate by a private loan company or a state loan agency. The federal government has long helped out both types of lenders with subsidies. More importantly, the feds have guaranteed these loans, protecting the lenders against any financial risk when a student defaults and fails to pay back a loan.

Nervous Congress But now, Congress is just as nervous as the banks are about credit risk. As a result, it's recently voted to reduce the financial help it gives to student lenders. The lenders have reacted to this quickly. State-backed student loan associations in Iowa and Michigan, just to name two, have severely reduced the number of loans they give our or stop lending completely.

In addition, America's biggest provider of loans to students, Sallie Mae, has raising it's standards for borrowers, and said it may begin limiting loans to students who go to schools that have poor graduation rates, or who produce alumni that have a poor record of repaying their loans.

Loans From Private Sources Even if you are able to obtain a Stafford loan, it is limited to $5,000 a year, forcing which means that you'll likely need to find additional money to pay for your tuition from a private lender. Regional banks and loan associations haven't stopped lending, but many now refuse to lend to a student with a FICO credit score anywhere under 650. Even if you have a good score, a private bank today may ask you to have your parents co-sign on your loan. That's a problem for many students, whose families are having credit problems in the current tough economic climate.

Borrowing For An Online Degree Distance learning college students face some unique obstacles, but also have some advantages. Many of the students who pursue career training from online schools don't come from affluent backgrounds, and have a greater need to borrow for tuition than students at private schools. However, many online schools also charge a great deal less in tuition than the traditional universities. That's one reason why some of the big commercial online colleges say that only a very small percentage of their students are currently borrowing to pay for their school costs.

Private banks in some areas are stepping in to fill the gap by lending to students in their area who can't get federally funded school loans. Although it's harder to find tuition loans in some of the traditional places, students should keep in mind that there are still a fairly wide variety of lenders out there, even if they may be a bit harder to find.