Which Oxford college did J.R.R. Tolkien attend as an undergraduate?

J.R.R. Tolkien attended Exeter College, Oxford, as an undergraduate.

He entered Exeter College in 1911 to study Classics. He initially followed the classical course, but changed direction toward English Language and Literature. He completed his degree in 1915, graduating with first-class honours.

Exeter College was founded in 1314 and is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Tolkien’s time there helped develop the philological interests that later shaped his scholarship and invented languages. His academic work eventually led to professorships at Oxford, including the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon.

This fact is sometimes confused with Tolkien’s later university appointments. He taught at the University of Leeds before returning to Oxford, where he became a fellow of Pembroke College and later Merton College. Exeter was the college where he studied as an undergraduate, not the institution where he spent most of his teaching career.