All schools · Ivy League

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

6%Far left92–100

38%Left75–91

39%Center-left59–74

11%Center42–58

2%Center-right26–41

3%Right9–25

2%Far right0–8

514 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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Framing Subject

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

AFRC 2130 · Carceral Crisis: The Question of Abolition100

Ethnic & African American Studies

The total number of incarcerated peoples in the United States is currently around 2.1 million people, held across various carceral sites – jails, immigration detention centers, and state and federal prisons. If we include all human beings…

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ANTH 2109 · Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples & British Colonialism in India100

Anthropology

Modern Western colonialism impacted the world in many ways. However, each country and community has had a different encounter and experience with colonialism. For the Adivasis (indigenous peoples) of India, it was catastrophic and marked a…

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COML 2403 · Marx's Century100

English & Comparative Literature

This course will introduce you to Karl Marx in the context of his century, and it will consider the nineteenth century in turn through the lens of his revolutionary social analysis. See the English Department's website at…

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Furthest-right subjects

AFRC 0400 · Colonial Latin America0

Ethnic & African American Studies

The colonial period (1492- 1800) saw huge population movements (many of them involuntary) within the Americas and across the Atlantic. As a result, Latin America was created from the entanglement of technologies, institutions, knowledge…

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AFRC 1121 · The American South0

Ethnic & African American Studies

Southern culture and history from 1607-1860, from Jamestown to seccession. Traces the rise of slavery and plantation society, the growth of Southern sectionalism and its explosion into Civil War.

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AFRC 3173 · Penn Slavery Project Research Seminar0

Ethnic & African American Studies

This research seminar provides students with instruction in basic historical methods and an opportunity to conduct collaborative primary source research into the University of Pennsylvania's historic connections to slavery. After an initial…

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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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