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Columbia University

Columbia University's course descriptions average 67.2 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Columbia University reads 0.4 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

Columbia University: 67.2 (likely range 66.2 to 68.1) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

<1%Far left92–100

20%Left75–91

74%Center-left59–74

5%Center42–58

0%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

232 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

CPLS GU4325 · Abolition Medicine: Medical Racisms and Anti-Racisms100

English & Comparative Literature

In 1935, WEB Dubois wrote about abolition democracy: an idea based not only on breaking down unjust systems, but on building up new, antiracist social structures. Scholar activists like Angela Davis, Ruth Gilmore and Mariame Kaba have long…

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WMST GU4210 · BLACK GEOGRAPHIES92

Women's & Gender Studies

Far from obvious renderings of place, maps are spatial arguments about who belongs where and how living should be defined. This course approaches place as something that is contested daily in the U.S. through the struggle of who gets to lay…

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WMST GR6155 · Histories of the Trans Present91

Women's & Gender Studies

Are trans people new? Is sex binary? Can sex change? These questions and their precedents have monopolized gendered politics and have taken on global significance in recent years. Amidst the tidal wave of transphobia and the scapegoating of…

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Furthest right

None. Columbia University has 232 left-framed courses and not one right-framed course.

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 66.2 to 68.1; 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.

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

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	46.2%	39	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	45.8%	59	view
Sociology	30.3%	76	view
Anthropology	22.0%	82	view
Religious Studies	20.4%	113	view
History	19.6%	219	view
English & Comparative Literature	17%	300	view
Art & Art History	8.2%	170	view
Political Science	6.7%	135	view
Philosophy	3.7%	54	view
Economics	1.7%	115	view
Psychology	1.3%	158	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
Columbia University	mean_bias_score	67.2	66.2 – 68.1	1,520	232
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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