Seniors, Parents Face Many Decisions in Search for College.

Byline: Gene Meyer

Nov. 17--Eighteen-year-old Blake Fletcher, a senior at Lee's Summit High School, is asking members of Missouri's congressional delegation for help securing his college education.

Lauren Halvorson, a 17-year-old Shawnee Mission South High School senior, and her parents are looking beyond the usual lists of big-name nationally ranked schools for smaller, prestigious private colleges that they've found to be surprisingly affordable.

Amy Kaufman, 17 and a senior at Blue Valley Northwest High School, and her parents are spending family vacations checking out campuses firsthand. They've seen 25 so far.

And Bliss Hartnett, 17, of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School has been surfing the Internet, scouting for cost information and every potential scholarship possible at the universities she wants to attend.

"It's time-consuming," she said. "But it's important, too. Just the cost of tuition and books is scary."

The four Kansas City area teens, like other seniors in high schools across the nation this autumn, are on a quest for which important deadlines are just weeks away.

Their mission: Find a good university that provides the education they want, get accepted, learn as much as possible, and graduate without running up mortgage-size debts.

Talk about daunting odds.

High schoolers and their families already know how much their college savings have been bloodied in the dismal investment markets of the past three years. The nation's sputtering economy also has trimmed tax revenues and returns on college endowment income.

This has helped push the average annual cost of tuition, fees, room and board at…