i don't know Alex directly that well but i believe his "freshman year" skipped all GIRs and was spent polishing off the most advanced graduate courses in CS theory (18.404), machine learning (6.867), algorithms (6.854), etc.

so basically he did MIT at the PhD level in 1 year.

As a classmate myself who did it in 3, at a high level too (and I think Varun - of Windsurf - completed his undergrad in 3 years also)...

Wang's path and trajectory, thru MIT at least, is unmatched to my knowledge.