The college-money mess is getting messier. Most recently, the nation’s largest college lender, Sallie Mae, said it would raise the cost of some of its student loans and stop offering consolidation loans for graduates who wanted to refinance their existing loans. But there are still ways to get the money you need, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org.

Undergraduates should check lenders like Discover (discoverstudentloans.com) and JPMorgan Chase (chase studentloans.com) that are trying to build their student-loan businesses and may offer better deals. Ask your school’s financial-aid office to recommend a lender. Then compare that offer with what you can find at sites like MyRichUncle .com and SimpleTuition.com.

New grads who want to consolidate variable-rate loans should wait until July, when rates are likely to fall by as much as 3 percentage points. Then check with the federal Education Department (loanconsolidation.ed.gov). Borrowers with fixed-rate loans might not bother to consolidate. They can get extended repayment plans without going through a rash of new borrowing. That’s good, because they’ll soon have all the grad-school loan applications to deal with.