All schools · Ivy League

Cornell University

Cornell 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 Cornell University reads 0.3 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

Cornell University: 67.2 (likely range 65.9 to 68.6) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

<1%Far left92–100

21%Left75–91

73%Center-left59–74

5%Center42–58

0%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

122 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

AIIS 3560 · Thinking from a Different Place: Indigenous Philosophies92

Ethnic & African American Studies

The Western nation-state has failed to solve the two most pressing, indeed catastrophic, global problems: poverty and climate change. This failure is due to the inability of national policy to imagine a world beyond a boundary drawn by the…

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ENGL 4380 · Imagining Utopia90

English & Comparative Literature

Why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism? At a time when reality appears dystopian, many are quick to dismiss utopian visions as naïve or irresponsible. In this seminar, we take on the critical and…

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ANTHR 4476 · Carceral Worlds: Policing, Prisons, and Securitization88

Anthropology

Grounded in anthropological and interdisciplinary analyses of policing, prisons, and security, this course aims to account for how carcerality shapes our worlds. Attentive to specificity and variability across place and time, we will…

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Furthest right

None. Cornell University has 122 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 65.9 to 68.6; 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.

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

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	46.7%	30	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	31.3%	64	view
Anthropology	17.6%	85	view
History	17.6%	119	view
Sociology	16%	50	view
English & Comparative Literature	14.5%	152	view
Political Science	11.5%	78	view
Art & Art History	8.4%	83	view
Psychology	5.7%	70	view
Religious Studies	5.6%	18	view
Economics	1.3%	76	view
Philosophy	0%	49	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
Cornell University	mean_bias_score	67.2	65.9 – 68.6	874	122
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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