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University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania's course descriptions average 68.6 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so University of Pennsylvania reads 1.0 points further left.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

University of Pennsylvania: 68.6 (likely range 67.5 to 69.7) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

2%Far left92–100

23%Left75–91

72%Center-left59–74

3%Center42–58

<1%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

251 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

ANTH 2978 · Just Futures Seminar II: Health and Healing in Abiayala (the Americas)96

Anthropology

Health and Healing in Abiayala (the Americas) will introduce students to ecosocial notions of health, colonialism’s contributions to ill-health, and decolonial action as healing action. Part one of the course introduces general concepts of…

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ANTH 5320 · Medical Anthropology in the Anthropocene94

Anthropology

Ongoing climate crises, militarization, racial injustice, and mass migration have torn apart social fabrics and have further exposed the unequal structures of power that have defined health, how it is realized, and for whom. The massive…

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AFRC 2800 · "In the Dark We Can All Be Free": Black Queer, Feminist & Trans Art(s) of Abolition92

Ethnic & African American Studies

If the afterlife of slavery, as Saidiya Hartman argues, is an aesthetic problem, what then is the relationship between abolition and aesthetics? How has the ongoing project of abolition been an aesthetic enterprise, and how does art shape…

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Furthest right

PSCI 4101 · The Right Market: Conservatism & Capitalism in Theory & Practice38

Political Science

This course surveys the ways conservatives have related to capitalism over time and across countries. It is designed to bridge theory, history, and national comparison to shed light on urgent contemporary policy choices facing conservatives…

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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 67.5 to 69.7; 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 Pennsylvania by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	38.8%	67	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	29.8%	272	view
Sociology	22.5%	102	view
Anthropology	22.5%	191	view
History	9.3%	194	view
Religious Studies	8.5%	47	view
Art & Art History	6.4%	312	view
Political Science	6.0%	134	view
English & Comparative Literature	4.3%	540	view
Philosophy	2.1%	146	view
Psychology	1.1%	87	view
Economics	0%	78	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 Pennsylvania	mean_bias_score	68.6	67.5 – 69.7	2,170	251
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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