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Calliope Wong, Calliope Wong, a male-to-female transgender student from Connecticut who applied to Smith College in 2013 and was denied on the basis of not being biologically female.

(calliowong.tumblr.com)

NORTHAMPTON -- In fall 2012, Calliope Wong applied to Smith College. She received a crushing notice from the school the following March.

"Our expectation is that it is consistently reflected throughout the application that the student is a woman," the letter read. "Upon reviewing your file, that is not the case. Your FAFSA indicates your gender as male. Therefore, Smith cannot process your application."

"Yes, I cried the day my papers came back," she wrote on her Tumblr page a few days later. "I still feel like crying."

Although the issue of whether to allow transgender women to attend Smith College has been a topic of discussion for years, it came to a head in early 2013 when Wong's story was picked up by national publications.

Smith College announced Saturday that it will begin accepting applicants who identify as transgender women this fall. Its admissions policy formerly required that all applications and supporting documents - including high school transcripts - reflected a female identity.

Wong, now a sophomore English major at the University of Connecticut, responded to the news on her blog Sunday.

"While there are language issues I have with Smith's current policy-for example, not explicitly addressing non-binary trans inclusion-I am happy; I am so tired, but happy," she wrote.

The New York Times nodded to Wong's reaction in an editorial Monday.

"Smith didn't give Ms. Wong an education. But the student's courage and tenacity taught her dream school a great deal," the Editorial Board penned in its article.

Wong wrote that she won't attempt to transfer to Smith, but wouldn't mind an honorary degree from the college.

"Smith College's inclusion of trans women is one very small ripple in the pond of the world, I know," she said. "But it is a demonstration of the fact that there's a lot of power you can't see, propagated, emanating onwards and outwards."