Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) announced on Wednesday that Lucy Poppleton, a student about to begin her senior year at Traverse City Central High School, has received a perfect score of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Poppleton took the test in April of this year, as part of Central’s annual school day test.

The most widely-used college entrance exam in the United States, the SAT measures students’ college readiness and knowledge in proficiency areas of math, reading, and writing. All students in Michigan are offered the opportunity to take the exam during the junior year of high school. Scores range from 400 to 1600; less than 0.05 percent of the more than 1.7 million U.S. students that take the test in any given year receive a perfect score.

Poppleton is the second TCAPS student – and the second at Traverse City Central – to notch a 1600 in the past three years. In 2021, Central student Lauren May grabbed local headlines when she received her own perfect SAT score. (The Ticker subsequently profiled May as part of our spotlight on the class of 2022.)

At Central, Poppleton is a part of the rigorous SCI-MA-TECH program, a member of the National Honor, and a writer for the school magazine, the Black & Gold Quarterly. In a press release announcing Poppleton’s perfect SAT score, TC Central Principal Jessie Houghton praised her for continuously demonstrating a “high level of academic work,” including college-level coursework “in fields such as multivariable calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, differential geometry, and complex analysis.”

Central High English Teacher Susan Roskelley, meanwhile, called Poppleton “an extraordinary student,” adding that “it is rare to find someone who is so academically gifted, yet so humble and gracious.”

“I am incredibly proud of her accomplishments both in and out of the classroom, and I know she will use her talents and strengths to make a meaningful impact on others,” Roskelley concluded.