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Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University's course descriptions average 66.5 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Carnegie Mellon University reads 1.0 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)

Carnegie Mellon University: 66.5 (likely range 64.7 to 68.4) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

2%Far left92–100

15%Left75–91

72%Center-left59–74

9%Center42–58

2%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

92 plotted courses (the ones with a political framing). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right.

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Framing Subject

Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.

Furthest left

60-374 · Critical Studies: Picturing Asian America94

Art & Art History

Asian American art is not Asian art. Asian art is not Asian American art. The conditions in which we make art in the United States have always been unique: our art has evolved to be antiracist, anti-patriarchal, and for the sake of the…

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60-365 · Critical Studies: Queer Power in Art Theory92

Art & Art History

Queer power is a form of (anti-)knowledge that demystifies phallogocentrism and neuters heteronormativity. This class examines how queer theories empower - and can originate in - art making and its history. Over the course of the semester,…

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60-372 · Critical Studies: The Precarious Body in Contemporary Art88

Art & Art History

This seminar will examine images and projects in contemporary art that deal with debates concerning ideas that had already begun brewing in the 1980s and early 90s, that addressed issues of institutional violence circulating under the guise…

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Furthest right

79-454 · The TransOceanic Railway36

History

This course is an introduction to railway restructuring and privatization, which arguably began in exactly 1990 with the privatization of Argentina's railways. The Argentine model has been replicated on other continents and in many settings…

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84 405 · The Future of Warfare38

Political Science

Warfare is constantly evolving. In the contemporary conflict environment, the prospect of large-scale conflict between near-peer states is converging rapidly with proxy conflicts and threats typically posed by nonstate and/or irregular…

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Why this number, in plain words

Political lean of course descriptions. Average Framing score (0 = far right, 50 = center, 100 = far left) of the scored courses in the group.

50 is the survey-anchored center of US adults on each issue (the "moderate" place of the ANES/GSS/PRRI seven-label ruler), not the cohort midpoint; scores above 50 read leftward, below 50 rightward.

Counted: courses with a Framing score (categories L/R/B/C). The likely range (95% interval) is 64.7 to 68.4; a comparison whose range overlaps this one is not a reliable difference.

Most course descriptions carry no political lean at all and are not in this average; the "share described from the left" view counts them.
Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.

Carnegie Mellon University by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
History	25.2%	159	view
English & Comparative Literature	20%	170	view
Art & Art History	6.6%	122	view
Political Science	4.8%	62	view
Philosophy	2.7%	75	view
Economics	2.6%	39	view
Psychology	2.4%	85	view

Lean (mean Framing score) is not published per department within a school; only the left-framed share is. Department rows carry no interval.

Details: exact rows, definitions and method

Name	Metric	Value	95% interval	n	scored
Carnegie Mellon University	mean_bias_score	66.5	64.7 – 68.4	712	92
All 100 schools	mean_bias_score	67.5	67.4 – 67.7	124,290	10,124

Formula: SUM(bias_score) / COUNT(bias_score)
Interval: normal approximation: mean +/- 1.96 * sd / sqrt(n), sample sd (n-1); undefined when n < 2
Model / prompt / snapshot: gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats: Scored courses only (L/R/B/C); N and I carry no score and are excluded, so n here is smaller than the group's course count. Scores are model readings of catalog description text against a fixed anchored definition, not teaching or syllabi. The interval covers sampling noise in the mean only; it does not represent model reading error. Every value carries a `method` label: exact_rows or histogram_midpoint.

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