Student aid requests soar as economy plummets

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/11/MNN9126CUL.DTL&feed=rss.news

Record numbers of college students are lining up for financial aid - and asking for more of it - as the nation's economic woes hit campuses across the country.

Nationally, 8.9 million students filed federal student aid forms during the first half of 2008, a 16.3 percent increase over the same period last year.

In California, 999,594 students requested federal financial aid during that period - an increase of nearly 20 percent. Bay Area campuses reflect the same trend.

From Santa Clara University and San Jose State University in the South Bay to UC Berkeley and Mills College in the East Bay, financial aid officers say families are increasingly struggling to pay rising college costs while they deal with layoffs, home foreclosures and skyrocketing living expenses.

slave to a bank for the rest of their life. Isn't it great bush is an education president? Another great job by the country's first idiot.

would get traction. The financials surrounding student loans is as bad or worst as the mortgage/subcrime scandals.

I am having to guide my daughter through those shark infested waters now. We live in Texas and daughter is going to school in Ca. We were very lucky to scrape the first year togather. Don't know after that...she'll be own her own.