Chariya R. Brockelmen.Udomrat Tivasub.Phathita Suwanwong.Mahidol University. International College. The Office of the Dean.Mahidol University. International College. The Office of Academic Affairs.2014-12-192018-10-262014-12-192018-10-262014-12-192007https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/32897The Six Pan Asian and Thailand TESOL International Conference – Celebrating the first decade of Pan Asian Collaboration: Beyond Boundaries: Teaching English for Global Communication in Asia, The Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. January 26-28, 2007Most high school graduates begin international college thinking that they just need to know English and be ready to study more. Only after a few weeks in the first semester, this optimism often turns into disappointment and sometimes a nightmare. Students not only have to study much harder, but they have to study differently. The instructors move at a much faster pace than they used to. Professors expect students to grasp new concepts and connect new information with what they already know and what they must quickly learn by reading English textbooks themselves. Although admission to Mahidol University International College (MUIC) is very competitive, with an acceptance rate of one out of five to six applicants, we have observed our freshmen struggle to cope with the changes in their lives as well as in their learning habitats. Outstanding students from the school system which requires only memorizing contents of the subject material suffered the most. To help students become better prepared for college lives, MUIC established a comprehensive orientation in the year 2000. All freshmen of each entering group must participate in a rigorous 3-day Freshmen Seminar. They learn about time management, ways that college study differs from high school, how to select their courses, and how to cope with different cultures and stress. Students also learn that plagiarism is a sin, and importantly, they learn where to get help that they need. Thirty students are assigned to one instructor who acts as an advisor through the first year and part of the second year. Despite this preparation, about 7% of students showed difficultly in surviving the first and second years at MUIC. We have introduced an academic counseling system to help mentoring and monitoring students whose grade point averages (GPA) are slip below 2.25. An academic counselor who is knowledgeable with all programs and courses will follow students study records closely, interview students, and find out if the students really like their major, or they have chosen that subject major because of family or social pressure. Once this task was done, the counselor will make a study plan for each trimester and observe students’ performance in that trimester. Other important issues are also brought into consideration, such as, family background, language or cultural difficulties, social or economic problems, involvement in extra curriculum activities, etc. In some case, social counselors and/ or parents are invited to help. This system has proven to be successful as numbers of students who earn GPA below 2.0 have decreased in the past three years, from 7% to 1% per year.engMahidol UniversityAcademic counselorProceeding Book