Michael Dias saw an advertisement in the paper announcing the arrival of Air Hostess Academy in Calcutta. At The Telegraph Careergraph Live Career Fair last month, he signed up for a course in aviation and hospitality management. The former student of St Thomas Boys School is planning to tackle the year-long course along with a BA correspondence degree from Indira Gandhi National Open University and a part-time job.

Michael has company while choosing a career path off the beaten track. The road less travelled is now crowded with his peer group making the transition from school to college.

And dearth of choice is not a problem plaguing students when it comes to courses and campuses. Not when their range of options includes medical degrees in Russia or China, management or IT diplomas in Canada or Singapore. Not with US and UK universities starting up campuses in Mumbai and Calcutta and vocational courses like jewellery designing and animation being available in the city itself. Then there are traditional favourites like English, law or economics, at a JU or a Xaviers, in Oxford or Cambridge.

An explosion of new courses and institutes in the city, around the country and abroad adds up to a win-win situation for students ? provided they know what they are going in for, how and why.

Making the right choice is not as easy as it sounds, with the biggest hurdle being the lack of guidance and qualified counsellors, resulting in confusion, say those in the know. ?Students should avoid getting swayed by the glitz and glamour and stick to the facts,? feels Snigdha Gohain, a Calcutta-based career counsellor.

Holistic help is often at hand at the admission and career fairs galore trundling through town, peddling education dreams and promising practical means to make them come true.

?Education is big business,? says Sanjeev Bolia, CEO, Afairs, organiser of the Admissions Fair, being held at the Ice Skating Rink till June 20. Bolia has been organising education fairs for the past 14 years. The Admission Fair is the second one for Afairs this year, with the Career Fair held in May and the promise of ?several more? in the coming months.

?A big chunk of outstation students, particularly in south India, is from Bengal. So the number of institutions participating in the fair has gone up substantially. Last year, there were about 20 from Karnataka; this time there are 40,? adds Bolia.

The four-day Career Fair had a footfall of 15,000, and a similar figure is expected for this one, with spot admissions to institutes home and abroad being the star attraction.