History
Credits: (3) Domain (Anchored): CSI Topical survey of Europe east and west since World War II. Includes postwar recovery, geopolitical tensions and the Cold War, imperialism, protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, communism and its…
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College of William and Mary
College of William and Mary's course descriptions average 68.4 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so College of William and Mary reads 0.8 points further left.
Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Where its courses fall
5%Far left92–100
33%Left75–91
45%Center-left59–74
6%Center42–58
1%Center-right26–41
7%Right9–25
3%Far right0–8
Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.
Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.
Furthest-left subjects
History
Credits: (3) College Curriculum: COLL 200 Domain (Anchored): CSI Domain (Reaching Out): ALV This course will examine Soviet and post-Soviet history after the death of Stalin in 1953. It will cover Stalinism and the legacy of Stalin, the…
Anthropology
Credits: (3) Prerequisite(s): BIOL 204 or CONS 201 or ENSP 101 College Curriculum: COLL 350 The field of conservation emerged along with settler-colonialism at the end of the 19th century, and it was linked to white settler strategies of…
Furthest-right subjects
History
Credits: (3) College Curriculum: COLL 300 Domain (Anchored): CSI This course is an introductory survey of Latin American history from pre-contact societies to the end of colonial rule encompassing both Portuguese and Spanish America. Latin…
History
Credits: (3) Establishment and course of Hitler's Third Reich, development of two Germanies since 1945, and their subsequent reunification.
History
Credits: (3) This course explores the life of Thomas Jefferson, his contributions to ideas of liberty and government that reverberate in the world, and his many complex legacies that are part of United States history and culture, including…
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 65.8 to 70.9; 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.
College of William and Mary by department (share of courses described from the left)
| Department | Left-framed share | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociology | 21.2% | 52 | view |
| Ethnic & African American Studies | 16.4% | 61 | view |
| Anthropology | 9.6% | 73 | view |
| Philosophy | 5.9% | 34 | view |
| History | 5.8% | 104 | view |
| Political Science | 1.7% | 59 | view |
| Art & Art History | 0% | 49 | view |
| Economics | 0% | 37 | view |
| English & Comparative Literature | 0% | 38 | view |
| Psychology | 0% | 56 | view |
| Religious Studies | 0% | 20 | view |
| Women's & Gender Studies | 0% | 5 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| College of William and Mary | mean_bias_score | 68.4 | 65.8 – 70.9 | 588 | 37 |
| 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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