Wellesley College, a women’s liberal arts college west of Boston, will for the first time ever admit transgender students who identify as women, or more specifically, any applicant who “lives as a woman and consistently identifies as a woman.” However, women who identify as men are not eligible for admission. The school did state that if a student during her time at Wellesley no longer identifies as a woman, the student will still be allowed to graduate if they continue to meet academic standards.

The policy will take effect in the next admission cycle, for the potential class of 2020. The new policy is believed to be a result comes of a committee President H. Kim Bottomly formed last fall to study “educational, social, legal and medical considerations about gender identity” according to the college. Bottomly said in a phone interview that a lot of thought was put into this move as a part of the college’s “mission-driven thinking”.

Wellesley is now the third local women’s college to create a more inclusive admissions policy by deciding to admit transgender students. Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, and Simmons College go one step above Wellesley and also accept women who identify as men. Each college says that they are responding to societal changes that are redefining how individuals, particularly young people, identify themselves. Bottomly stated that the new policy specifically at Wellesley is designed to reaffirm the college’s commitment to education women, as he believes that the need for a women’s college is “as valid today as it has been at any time in the past”.

The college will also be open to assisting students who would like to transfer due to their no longer identifying women. Bottomly made Wellesley’s position clear, saying, “We will support all the students who are at Wellesley and all of their kinds of finding themselves in all of the ways that we can”.