12 years after dropping out, Mark Zuckerberg receives an honorary degree from Harvard University (photos)

12 years after dropping out of Harvard University, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg returned to pick up his degree. Zuckerberg, 33, received an honorary degree at the 366th Commencement on Thursday, May 25.

"Mom, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree" he captioned a photo with his parents.

The billionaire was part of Harvard's class of 2006 before he dropped out to work full-time on his social networking site, Facebook.

He founded what was then called "The Facebook" in his college dormitory in 2004.

The service was at first limited only to Harvard students before expanding to other Ivy League universities. He also met his wife Priscilla while attending the school.

On Wednesday, he returned to the room where he built Facebook along with his co-founders, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes.

He is scheduled to deliver the commencement address shortly, following the footstep of Bill Gates, another famous Harvard dropout, who has delivered the university's commencement address. Zuckerberg said his speech would "share what I've learned about our generation and the world we're all building together."