On January 25, 2026, the Sunday before Milton’s midterms were scheduled to begin, Boston was hit with the largest snowstorm in the past four years. At 2 p.m., Chief Information Officer Bryan Price’s singsongy voice to the tune of Moana’s “How Far I’ll Go” alerted students that the school was calling a snow day–the first postponement during an exam week since 2015. Consequently, exams scheduled for that Monday were pushed back a week to February 2, and Tuesday midterms were delayed by two hours.

Originally, Monday, February 2 was part of a four-day no-homework weekend. Even though Academic Dean Heather Sugrue repeatedly urged students to purchase refundable tickets because of potential snow, some students still planned vacations over the long weekend. Sugrue recalled, “I had a number of families reach out because they made plans or had previous things on their calendar, like big-deal things.”

Despite these conflicts, she explained that “the rule was that [the Office of Student Life] could shift exams to later than originally scheduled, but not earlier.” Reflecting on past years’ snow day solutions, she explained that “some years, [the Office of Student Life] tried to move things to Saturday, [but] that, of course, did not land well with a lot of students and families.”

Even this year, despite frequent communication throughout the week leading up to exams, some students felt that the decision cost them a much-needed break. Adair Johnson ‘27, for example, commented, “I did not want the snow day, and I’m enraged that I didn’t get my four-day weekend to reset.” Solomon Fleiss ‘28 also expressed discontent over the loss of relaxation, since “the threat of studying [loomed] over [his] head” during what was supposed to be a no-homework weekend.

For some students, the uncertainty around the exam schedule caused stress about travel and preparation. In a survey conducted from February 9-11, 20 student respondents out of 36 reported that their plans for the long weekend had been disrupted. Multiple students originally planned to spend time with family. Among them was Erin Breva ‘27, who was originally going to Spain to celebrate her grandmother’s 80th birthday, but she could no longer travel after two of her exams were postponed. Charlotte Baker ‘29 and Julia Goddard ‘29 were among some of the boarders who had their time with their families cut short. Other students simply wanted to have the time to themselves, like Johnson, who planned to “to play Sims 4 the entire weekend.”

Fleiss suggested that due to this disruption, “[he] believe[s] we should receive an additional break in response to our lack of semester separation which should have occurred last Friday.” He added, that he believed the school should give another break to “fully rectify the situation and ‘apologize to the students.’”

In contrast, Ezra Chen ‘27 commented, “Honestly, we have a 4 day weekend coming up already…so I feel like nothing is truly lost.” He expressed that while he was “hyped” for break, he prioritized the extra study time for his Monday exam. Around 40% of survey respondents also mentioned appreciating the extra time to study and prepare. Aimee Li ‘28 shared, “[A]t first, I was disappointed when I heard about the cancellation because I had my hardest test on Monday, and I wanted to get it over with. But as I continued studying, I realized that I actually wasn’t as prepared as I thought, so I became a lot more grateful for [the delay].” Li noted the shift helped with her stress levels, and she was able to dedicate more time to her Tuesday midterm.

Lucas Xia ‘28 also mentioned that while he felt relieved for the snow day, he did not attend as many extra help sessions as he wanted to because “[a] lot of teachers had their extra help sessions during [his] exams.”

Beyond logistical concerns, the rescheduling also changed how some students thought about their midterm experience more broadly. Lydia McLean ‘27 explained that since she studied under the assumption that exams would proceed as originally planned, she was more annoyed than stressed by the delay. “I was annoyed because I had a sit-down exam, so I kind of just wanted to get it over with,” she explained. However, McLean expressed appreciation for how the administration handled rescheduling, saying, “I’m glad that the rest of my exams stayed the same; it would have been annoying if everything else changed too.”

As a new junior, McLean described her first midterm season in one word: “overhyped.” She explained that in the weeks leading up to midterms, people often exaggerated the dread of exam week: “[Y]ou’re going to have to take exams for the rest of high school and college, so I think that facing it with this much fear is not the best way to approach it.”