The Massachusetts Institute of Technology awarded Richard Feynman his undergraduate SB degree.
Feynman studied at MIT during the late 1930s and received the degree in 1939. “SB” stands for Scientiæ Baccalaureus, MIT’s traditional Latin designation for a Bachelor of Science. His undergraduate education gave him a rigorous foundation in mathematics and theoretical physics and helped launch the career that would make him one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated physicists.
After MIT, Feynman entered Princeton University for graduate study. He earned a perfect score on Princeton’s entrance examination in physics and mathematics, an achievement often mentioned in accounts of his education. He completed his PhD there in 1942 under John Archibald Wheeler, with a thesis on the principle of least action in quantum mechanics.
MIT is therefore distinct from Princeton and Caltech in Feynman’s academic story: MIT granted his first university degree, Princeton granted his doctorate, and Caltech later became his long-term institutional home. Columbia and Harvard were not the institutes that awarded this undergraduate qualification.