The application of metacognitive strategies has been found to play a crucial role in reading comprehension. Hence, a sequential explanatory design method was undertaken on the use of metacognitive strategies among 403 Filipino ESL freshman students taking up General English Course. Findings revealed that the participants demonstrated a high metacognitive awareness of reading strategies while reading academic texts in English with problem solving strategies as their prime choice, followed by support strategies, and global strategies. Among the different metacognitive reading strategies, reading to increase understanding and highlighting to help them remember important information from the text were of high usage. There is a significant difference in the freshman students' use of metacognitive strategies when they are grouped according to field of study. Among the eight groups of participants, six groups of students use metacognitive strategies on a high level. Students enrolled in Medical Laboratory Science used the MARSI extensively while students in the field of criminology use metacognitive strategies on a significantly lower frequency level when compared to the other fields. Drawing upon the findings of this study, further research on the factors influencing the differences on the employment of metacognitive reading strategies among readers be undertaken.