Allen Cheng, Founder and Head Editor

Allen Cheng was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of two Taiwanese immigrants. Throughout his early life he developed an interest in writing and particularly in crafting the perfect admissions essay. This helped him gain admission to the top undergraduate institutions in the country, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. As a senior in high school he also represented the United States as part of a 4-member team at the 2005 International Chemistry Olympiad, where he won a silver medal (over 10,000 American students competed for a spot as part of the team).

Allen began his undergraduate tenure at Harvard College in 2005, where he enjoyed teaching his peers and helping them reach academic success. He served as the only undergraduate Teaching Assistant in three popular organic chemistry courses with a total of over 600 students. For these efforts Allen earned Certificates of Distinction for Teaching, awarded for very high student evaluations.

Allen also continued his passion for writing by serving as editor-in-chief of two Harvard publications. In these positions he managed dozens of writers and editors and supervised each published article in great detail.

In addition to his teaching and editing, Allen also engaged in extensive research in chemical biology and in a wide body of coursework in the sciences, psychology, ancient history, and the business of pharmaceutical companies. For this Allen graduated from Harvard summa cum laude in Chemistry and as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He was also named to the All-USA College Academic Team, consisting of the top 20 undergraduates selected by USA Today, the largest newspaper in the United States.

Allen then joined the highly selective MD-PhD program at Harvard Medical School (accepting 12 students from 500 applications) and is currently a first-year student. Simultaneously, he manages all operations of Ivy Writing and is always seeking to provide the highest quality service possible.