As the financial world waits for frozen credit markets to thaw, higher-education officials say college students will face unprecedented scrutiny from private lenders as the United States reels from its sharp economic downturn.

Students seeking to attend the nation's largest universities whose loan applications come with credit-worthy cosigners likely will have little trouble obtaining financing, experts say--but community college students with scant or checkered credit histories might be driven to nontraditional payment policies.

The $850 billion bailout package passed by Congress earlier this month won't have an immediate impact on student loans, but it could be a first step in unclogging the credit market and making loans more widely available, campus officials said. Until then, many college students will have to rely on federal money flowing directly from the federal government.

"I just hope, for students' sake, that this bailout helps and access doesn't become an issue for students to be able to … fulfill whatever dream they have," said Tom Dalton, assistant vice president for enrollment management at Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y.

If loans become scarce, colleges might have to establish pay-over-time systems, in which students have an entire semester to pay for classes. Because that requires colleges to absorb the risk, instead of a third-party lender, some financial experts say many institutions would be reluctant to embrace such a model.

Students entering college will find their lending options have dwindled in just the past year. Thirty-six lenders have stopped offering private student loans since 2007, according to FinAid.org, a web site that tracks student lending, scholarships, and other kinds of financial aid. And with world markets in an upheaval, the line extending from the student loan industry soon could be a long one.

"I've never seen anything like this is 25 years in higher education, and I don't think anyone else has either," said Excelsior College President John Ebersole, adding that an unusually high number of Excelsior students waited until tuition deadlines to pay for their fall classes. "We're living in a very unique and unpleasant time in our history."

Ebersole and other college officials said federal financial aid would largely be immune to the disruptions in the credit markets. He said direct federal lending has become commonplace at many community colleges and soon could catch on at four-year universities. The trend took off after major banks announced they would stop lending to students at traditionally riskier two-year colleges. Congress calmed fears in higher education in September, when it voted to ensure that federal loans would be available until at least the end of the 2009-10 school year.

Over the past year, major universities such as Indiana, Penn State, and Michigan State have announced they will use the federal Direct Loan Program as the source for federally backed student loans. At Indiana's Bloomington campus, nearly 40 percent of undergraduates--or about 12,000 students--use subsidized federal loans through private lenders. Nationally, 40 percent of students who receive student aid pay for college through federal loans, according to a 2007 study released by The College Board. Sixty-one percent of graduate students who use financial aid receive federal loans.