DENVER -- The credit crunch is impacting Colorado's next generation of leaders -- college students.

Student loans are still available and government-backed Stafford loans appear to be fine. But the director of Financial Aid at Metro State said the financial aid program lost roughly 5 percent of its available private lenders.

"Some of the lenders have dropped out of that program. But we only do approximately $3 million in alternative loans compared to approximately $60 million in the Stafford loans," said Cindy Hejl. "A very tiny percentage."

Some students say they're being squeezed now as their parents get hammered on Wall Street.

"My father lost a lot of his retirement. So it's looking like he's gonna have to work the rest of his life," said Metro State junior Sam Kounalis. "Looks pretty bad, man. I'm living at home, trying to go to school. I don't know if they're going to be able to help me out as much."

Already, his choices as a student have been reduced.

"Yeah, I'm getting ready to leave, man. I don't have time for nothing else. Been going to work, everything like that. (I) don't have time to get an internship or anything because, as a result of everything, I have to stay working so I can stay in school," Kounalis said.

"Well, I had some financial aid money in the stock market and I pulled it out. It was in there for three months and I pulled it out," said senior Kally Geddings, who is an exercise science major. "I saved myself some money but I didn't make any money. I still lost money."

She bought a Lexus and hopes it will help her direct sales business.

Others are preparing differently.

"There's been approximately 1,000 more applications that our office has received. So, that may've had an impact," Hejl said of the financial aid applications for next fall.

At CollegeInvest, recent calls have come from concerned parents and even some students who want to know if their nest egg is OK.

"If they are panicked, we'll just emphasize that it is more of a longer-term investment. We have conservative options available," said David Wiener, a CollegeInvest spokesman.

As administrators of the state's 529 college savings plan, CollegeInvest doesn't give advice, referring callers to private, expert money managers already contracted to help investors navigate the increasingly treacherous waters. There are several age-based options designed to minimize risk as a student gets closer to the next step.

"So, most of the time, people that are entering college, they're already in pretty conservative investments, so they're doing OK," Wiener said. "We have noticed a decrease in contributions, which is to be expected. But we haven't noticed an increase with withdrawals."

Compared with August 2007, new account openings at CollegeInvest are down 10 percent while overall contributions to the plans, even with dollar-for-dollar state income tax deductions, are down 15 percent.