On Alex Saeed's desk in his dormitory room at the Johns Hopkins University rests a 4-inch-thick "Textbook of Surgery." Some Lego blocks are on a nearby shelf.
Alex wants to be a doctor, and he's taking a five-course load heavy on science, including one course called "Human Brain." But every afternoon he finds time to watch "Animaniacs," a TV cartoon show. At home on the weekends, he knocks around his Gaithersburg neighborhood with 12- and 13-year-olds.
His nickname is Smart Alex, and he is 14. He entered Hopkins in January as a junior, becoming the university's youngest student.
Alex shrugs off the incongruities that are his life.
"A lot of people say, 'You've given up your childhood,' " Alex says. "But I like to ask, what do other kids my age do that I'm missing? I play tennis. I swim. I'm taking tae kwon do."
Alex, who graduated from a community college in December, falls into a long line of high-achieving youths who have entered Hopkins at an early age. Since 1953, 41 students have graduated at 18 or younger, says Julian C. Stanley, founder of the university's programs for the precocious.
But Alex, who will be 16 when he graduates in two years if he stays on schedule, would be one of the youngest.
"Hopkins has been a place that has traditionally been sympathetic to young people coming to college when they're ready," says William G. Durden, director of the Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. "I think Alex is ready,"
His father, Alex Saeed Sr., is a Pakistani-born consultant and a tireless promoter of his two bright children. Alex's mother, Joo-Ok, is a Korean-born nurse who holds two jobs. His sister, Sophia, 10, is capable of going to college now, Mr. Saeed says.
Alex's father said his son started reading at 2. At 4, he mastered long division and sums involving dozens of multidigit numbers.
Mr. Saeed wrote out the math problems on white paper and dangled cash in a paper clip from the ceiling as an incentive.
"The best thing was money. As soon as I was done I could reach up and just grab the money," Alex recalls, smiling. "A dollar a day, every day." Much of the money is still in a bank account, he says.
After Alex completed kindergarten and first grade in a Montgomery County public school, his parents considered eight private schools. They did not find the right match, and Alex returned to public school.
"In terms of content, it was extremely boring. No, boring's not the right word. Easy. No-brainer," he says, pointing to his head.
After the fifth grade, he took the Scholastic Aptitude Test, scoring a combined 970 out of a possible 1,600 on the math and verbal tests, 70 points higher than the U.S. average for high school seniors.
At age 11, Alex began taking night courses at Hopkins. But the family tired of the 110-mile round trip, and he enrolled at Montgomery County Community College.
There Alex was well known, getting elected treasurer of the student government at age 13. He earned his associate's degree in December.
Dr. Stanley, who has been studying precocious students for 25 years, says someone Alex's age is typically better off going to high school and attending college part-time.
"I think the possibility of social development is better," Dr. Stanley says. "It's hard for students that age to have the experience -- for dating girls, for example."
Dr. Durden, though, says there is no one right way to educate an especially talented child.
"There is the provincial approach where people say, 'Well, you missed the prom,' " Dr. Durden says. "My response to that is that the majority of the world grows up mature and doesn't have the prom . . . or go out repeatedly to the mall.
"I hear too many times where people will take cultural superficialities and use that against a developing child, instead of saying . . . 'Who is the child and what does this child need for him or her to develop?' "
One Hopkins student, who graduated at 17 with a bachelor's and a master's degree, has become a leader in virtual reality. Another, who graduated at 18, went on to law school, a Fulbright scholarship, a clerkship with a federal judge and a Marshall scholarship at Oxford University.
Alex wants to be a doctor, perhaps a heart surgeon or a geneticist.
Poopak Ta'ati, a Montgomery Community College associate professor who taught Alex sociology, calls him one of her brightest students, including those she taught at the University of Texas and the University of Minnesota. She praised "his ability to understand the concepts and immediately work with them and take them even further."
Overall, Alex's academic record is by no means stellar, except that it was accomplished about six years ahead of schedule.
An 18-year-old high school student with the same credentials would be a "marginal" candidate for admission, says Richard M. Fuller, Hopkins' director of admissions.
Crucial to the decision were Alex's age and composure. Mr. Fuller said Hopkins officials didn't even look at his IQ, which Mr. Saeed says is off the charts.
At Hopkins, Alex rooms with Mike Portman, a would-be writer from Laredo, Texas. The rock 'n' roll posters that cover the walls belong to the roommate. Alex has put up only his course schedule, a dining schedule, his diploma and one souvenir -- the paper clip that held the motivational dollar bills.
Alex figures he can pass for an 18-year-old and says the freshmen in his dormitory have been friendly.
"A lot of the people are his type of crowd, his social group," says Kevin Seavey, 19, a freshman who lives on the same floor. "He really fits in with them -- just a lot of intellectual types and introverts."
With a puckish grin, Alex shows off one of his custom-designed study aids. He has ripped apart a psychology textbook, gluing a sheet of paper to each page to create oversized margins in which he has scribbled dozens of questions.
Alex goes home to Gaithersburg every Friday. As a black belt in the martial art of tae kwon do, he teaches children on the weekends.
Thanks to his father, Alex has become a minor media celebrity. Mr. Saeed says he wants to write a book about the family's learning techniques, some of which he picked up from books such as "How to Raise a Human Being."
As the first born, Alex was the pioneer. He never slept in a crib, which his parents feared might discourage curiosity. To introduce him to books, the Saeeds checked out 150 at a time from the library, strewing them around on their king-size bed and allowing the infant to browse. As a toddler, Alex was never confined to a shopping cart in the supermarket, but roamed the aisles examining the merchandise.
Mrs. Saeed is weary of her husband's publicity efforts, saying Alex should be allowed to be an obscure, albeit exceedingly smart teen-ager.
"Sometimes my husband can be a little pushy," Mrs. Saeed says. "Alex is too young. It's time for him to digest and grow up a little bit."
Overall, Alex seems to have few apprehensions about his rapid run through life. "Not many other people get to do what I'm doing now," he says. "The sacrifices I've made have been more than rewarded."