All schools · Other private

Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University's course descriptions average 66.5 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Vanderbilt University reads 1.1 points further right.

ShowCompared withDepartments

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

Vanderbilt University: 66.5 (likely range 64.7 to 68.3) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

4%Far left92–100

34%Left75–91

40%Center-left59–74

7%Center42–58

4%Center-right26–41

5%Right9–25

5%Far right0–8

255 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.

See it for yourself

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

GSS2222W · Another World is Possible: Feminist Futures100

Women's & Gender Studies

Political activism, community-building, and artistic expression forging visions of the future. Structures that uphold systems of oppression. Perceptions and critical assumptions of the future as natural, predetermined, or immovable.…

See it for yourself →

GSS3405 · Mass Incarceration and Abolition Feminism100

Women's & Gender Studies

Feminists as theorists and activists in prison abolition. Decentering the male as the embodiment of mass incarceration. Sexual assault to prison pipeline. Effects of carceral gendering on black women's lives. Economic, psychological, and…

See it for yourself →

HIST2100 · Politics and Catastrophe in Modern China100

History

Influence of politics on culture, society, government, and the military. The Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square. [3] (INT)

See it for yourself →

Furthest-right subjects

AADS3248 · Atlantic African Slave Trade0

Ethnic & African American Studies

Cultural, economic, and social aspects of the African slave trade into the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries. Transformation of the slave trade as a result of abolition and suppression. [3] (SBS)

See it for yourself →

AADS4506 · Slavery and Public Memory0

Ethnic & African American Studies

Systems of African enslavement in the Americas as a subject of debate among popular and academic audiences. Memoirs, oral history, genealogy, literature, film, and other creative production. Public commemoration and tourist-related slavery…

See it for yourself →

ENGL2255 · Rise of the American Novel0

English & Comparative Literature

Early foundations of the American novel through the post-Civil War period. How authors like Lydia Maria Child and Charles Brockden Brown invented genres such as American Gothic and Historical Romance and addressed crises like Indian Removal…

See it for yourself →

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 64.7 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.

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

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Women's & Gender Studies	34.8%	69	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	12.5%	72	view
Sociology	10.6%	85	view
History	4.2%	263	view
Anthropology	4.1%	123	view
Religious Studies	2.6%	78	view
Psychology	1%	100	view
Political Science	0.8%	133	view
Art & Art History	0.6%	173	view
Economics	0%	59	view
English & Comparative Literature	0%	166	view
Philosophy	0%	74	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
Vanderbilt University	mean_bias_score	66.5	64.7 – 68.3	1,395	63
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.

Ask a question about Vanderbilt University · Make a school card