TYLER, Texas (KETK) – Tyler Junior College is the ninth community college to join the Texas A&M University engineering transition program.

“Students will be co-enrolled, accepted into the College of TJC, and also accepted into the College of Engineering of Texas A&M University,” said Dr. Juan Mejia, President and CEO of Tyler Junior College.

Tyler Junior College president Juan Mejia said the students will attend TJC for their first two years to complete their core curriculum courses and basic engineering classes.

  • Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.
    Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.
  • Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.
    Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.
  • Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.
    Photo courtesy of Tyler Junior College.

“We will send engineering professors here to teach them the basic engineering courses,” said John Sharp, Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.

According to U.S News & World Report in 2023, Texas A&M College of Engineering is ranked in the top ten engineering schools in the nation.

Texas A&M University Chancellor John Sharp said distance and cost tend to keep students away but with the academy, it will help make the transition to an on-campus environment easier and cheaper.

“It offers students here in East Texas the ability to save a ton of money,” said Sharp.

Addyson Campbell from Tyler is a chemical engineering student at Texas A&M and said if the program had been offered when she was looking for schools she would have jumped at the chance to enroll.

“My family is very important to me so attending a few academies, which is just 10 minutes from my house, would have allowed me to be closer to my family, friends, and my home, all while pursuing a degree I have dreamed of my entire life,” said Addyson Campbell, chemical engineering student at Texas A&M University.

The program will also help keep engineering students in-state after graduation.

“There’s a high need for engineers and this is a way to really address that high need throughout the state and country,” said Dr. Mejia.

“We need 50,000 engineers just in Texas in the next three or four years and so we have to produce more, even though we’re the largest engineering school in the country,” said Sharp.

Along with a cheaper cost and being closer to home Mejia and Sharp said students who have been through the academy have higher GPAs than those that started the engineering program at Texas A&M University. The engineering academy will begin this fall at Tyler Junior College. The application can be completed by visiting TJC online through July 31.