250 Years U.S. and your applications?

Have you thought about how the 250 anniversary of the U.S. will affect college admissions?

The foundational documents of the United States are fair game for testing students' critical reasoning on the SAT. If all you know is "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," well, that's a start, but it's time to study the rest. True, the test is not about previous knowledge of the content, but my advice is that you'll do better if test day is not the first time you lay eyes on such documents.

Sotheby's auction house is currently exhibiting a rare early copy of the Declaration of Independence, in case you'd like to see a physical example of how word of the declaration was spread among the colonists. My husband, an 18th-century scholar, wanted to see it yesterday.

You can also read the text on the internet.

With the Big Snow on the way, I ran up for a last ride on the top deck of the ferry across the Hudson home.