DES MOINES, Iowa

A tightening credit market could make life increasingly difficult this fall for college students who may not find money available to borrow or could be forced to ask their parents to co-sign a loan.

The news on Wednesday that Iowa Student Loan would stop taking applications for private loans comes at a time when students are already carrying heavy debt and are working doubly hard to pay rising tuition costs.

“Its unfortunately forcing people into a state where they're always sick, depressed or mad at themselves for something or mad at their parents for not being able to help out,” said Chris Civitate, 20, of Des Moines.

Iowa Student Loan, a private nonprofit organization that provides about 90,000 college loans to Iowa students each year, made the move because of tightening of consumer credit markets.

CEO Steve McCullough said private loans are becoming harder to provide because the market for selling the bonds that backs the loans has evaporated.

McCullough said the organization will stop taking private loan applications in April.

About 26,000 students seeking loans for college each year rely on private loans for at least a portion of their college aid package.

Last year, about 68,500 students relied on government-backed loans administered by Iowa Student Loan. Those loans should remain available through Iowa banks and credit unions, which have pledged to provide up to $250 million in loans for Iowa students, McCullough said.

He said he had been working for several weeks to get bank and credit unions to commit to provide the government-backed loans for the fall. He said about 70 institutions said they would.

Now, McCullough said he is beginning to work with other banks and financial institutions not offering the government loans to make private loans available.

He said the federal government may need to inject money into the market to help alleviate the credit crunch, much as it did this week to help the mortgage credit crisis.