Chegg Launches Affordable Online College Guidance Counseling Service

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Chegg, Inc. (CHGG), the Student Hub, today announced the launch of a live, online college counseling platform that democratizes the college counseling industry. Chegg's goal is to make college counseling accessible to all students. By leveraging Chegg's InstaEDU on-demand technology and a network of expert counselors including alumni of the College Advising Corps as well as professionals with experience as private college counselors and college admissions officers at top universities throughout the country, Chegg can help students from all economic backgrounds find the right college.

According to the American School Counselor Association¹, the ratio of high school students to school counselors in America's public high schools is about 471 to 1 on average, and, according to the California Department of Education², the ratio of students per counselor averages 945 to 1 in California. According to the Independent Educational Consultants Association³, many private college counselors offer only comprehensive packages, which cost an average of about $4,000 per child. As a result, many students have difficulty accessing the tools that can help them succeed in the college application process. With Chegg's college counseling platform, students can now access an experienced college guidance counselor online and at a fraction of the typical industry cost, $24 per hour at launch. Chegg is also offering free college counseling hours for first-generation low-income students who have signed up through ImFirst.org.

"The college admission process is competitive, confusing, and cumbersome. Public high school counselors often lack the time necessary to counsel students, creating an ongoing public demand for easy access to these important services," said Bob Patterson, former Director of Admission at Stanford and current Vice President of College Outreach at Chegg. "Our new counseling service opens the opportunity to all high school students and families nationwide, regardless of location or income, helping to level the playing field."

Chegg's college counseling platform connects prospective applicants with a network of counselors via video, audio and/or text. Once connected, students can speak with the counselors about the admissions process in general, discuss questions, receive guidance for school research and selection, and upload essays and applications for real-time, collaborative review.

To further democratize the admissions process, Chegg is also partnering with the nonprofit Center for Student Opportunity (CSO), creators of ImFirst.org, an online community that provides first-generation, low-income college students with inspiration, information, and support on the path to and through college. Through this partnership, Chegg is providing up to 2 hours of its counseling services at no cost to 10,000 registered students on ImFirst.org. Aspiring first-generation college students who are not already members but wish to join the ImFirst.org community and benefit from Chegg's counseling services can easily sign up for free at ImFirst.org.

"We're excited to partner with Chegg to make college counseling more accessible to aspiring first-generation college students," said Matt Rubinoff, CSO's founder and Executive Director. "Through the partnership, we want students who lack a family history of higher education to know that college is possible; by using Chegg's counseling platform to its full potential, the admissions process becomes less intimidating and increases support for all students."

Available immediately, students wishing to use the services can reach counselors by appointment; over time, Chegg expects to have counselors available on-demand. For more information or to get started with a college guidance counselor now, visit: https://instaedu.com/college-counselor/

About Chegg
Chegg puts students first. As the leading student-first connected learning platform, the company makes higher education more affordable, more accessible, and more successful for students. Chegg is a publicly-held company based in Santa Clara, California and trades on the NYSE under the symbol CHGG. For more information, visit www.chegg.com.

About Center for Student Opportunity and ImFirst.org
Center for Student Opportunity (CSO) is a national nonprofit based in Bethesda, Md. that empowers first-generation college students on the path to and through college. In addition to operating ImFirst.org, an online community providing first-generation college students with inspiration, information, and support, CSO publishes the I'm First Guide to College and maintains partnerships with colleges and universities across the country to strengthen and build awareness of their campus efforts on behalf of first-generation college students.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which include, without limitation those regarding Chegg's expectation that counselors will be available on-demand on its platform. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, but are based on management's expectations as of the date of this press release and assumptions that are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements include the following: the ability of Chegg to attract quality college counselors, the rate of adoption of the counseling platform, and other factors. These and other important risk factors are described more fully in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Chegg's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, and could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Additional information will also be set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. All information provided in this release and in the conference call is as of the date hereof and Chegg undertakes no duty to update this information except as required by law.

¹ http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/01/remarks-first-lady-american-school-counselor-association-annual-conferen 
² http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/cg/rh/counseffective.asp 
³ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/12/us-college-admissions-counselor-idUSBRE97B0AO20130812

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SOURCE Chegg, Inc.