He received his B.A. cum laude from Princeton University in 1945 (partly based on Princeton giving him credit for the 500-odd books he had read in captivity). As part of his degree, Katzenbach completed a senior thesis titled "The Little Steel Formula: An Historical Appraisal." He received an LL.B. "cum laude" from Yale Law School in 1947, where he served as Articles Editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1947 to 1949, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford.