By JENNA ROSS, Minneapolis Star Tribune

DULUTH, Minn. - The money wasn't hers, not really. And anyway, she didn't want it. "Blood money," she called it.

Maureen Tobin Stanley's father was a violent man who, just before her 16th birthday, punched her in the face so hard that she ended up in the emergency room. He died by violence, too -- shot twice in the head.

Law school is no longer a sure bet. Would-be students are noticing.

The swell of students applying to law school -- despite growing debt and contracting job prospects -- has slowed. Nationwide, prospective students have read the bad news, are asking tougher questions and, more often, are declining to apply.

They meet behind college campuses' closed doors, discuss students in complete confidentiality and often investigate in secret.

The rate of suicide and depression on college campuses is rising, and last month the trend hit St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Hard.

The price of a private college education will rise less than it has in decades.
Nationwide, tuition and fees are 4.3 percent more than last year. That's the lowest bump since 1972, according to a survey of 350 schools by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.