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University of Chicago

University of Chicago's course descriptions average 67.3 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so University of Chicago reads 0.3 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

University of Chicago: 67.3 (likely range 66.3 to 68.3) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

3%Far left92–100

14%Left75–91

79%Center-left59–74

4%Center42–58

<1%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

276 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

RDIN 23304 · Abolitionist Theologies100

Ethnic & African American Studies

How might religions activate the abolitionist imagination? The contemporary abolition movement is not just about dismantling prisons or the police. It is about imagining alternatives to this apparatus of fear, punishment, and scarcity-and…

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ENGL 21720 · Science fiction against the state96

English & Comparative Literature

This course reads science fiction and other texts (including theory, essays and zines) that imagine what it might mean to live against, beyond or without the state, and thus beyond or against the law, the police and capitalism. We will…

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GNSE 21400 · Advanced Theories of Gender and Sexuality96

Women's & Gender Studies

Beginning with the fraught legacy of the New Left and the proliferation of "new social movements" such as feminism and gay liberation, this seminar explores the key debates around which gender and sexuality were articulated as tenacious but…

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Furthest right

ECON 28620 · Crony Capitalism40

Economics

The economic system prevailing in most of the world today differs greatly from the idealist version of free markets generally taught in economic classes. This course analyzes the role played by corporate governance, wealth inequality,…

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RDIN 25800 · Black Ownership of Wealth: A Theological Consideration40

Ethnic & African American Studies

Since Africans were brought to the Virginia Colony (August 1619), throughout slavery and segregation until today, black Americans (men and women) have always owned wealth. They have always had human agency. These black families accumulated…

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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 66.3 to 68.3; 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.

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

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Ethnic & African American Studies	55.7%	79	view
Women's & Gender Studies	46.7%	90	view
Anthropology	31.6%	171	view
Sociology	16.7%	72	view
History	12.4%	218	view
English & Comparative Literature	11.9%	494	view
Political Science	9.7%	144	view
Art & Art History	5.4%	240	view
Psychology	4.3%	92	view
Religious Studies	3.3%	91	view
Philosophy	2.4%	82	view
Economics	0%	181	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
University of Chicago	mean_bias_score	67.3	66.3 – 68.3	1,954	276
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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