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Washington University in St. Louis

Washington University in St. Louis's course descriptions average 67.7 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Washington University in St. Louis reads 0.2 points further left.

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

Washington University in St. Louis: 67.7 (likely range 66.7 to 68.8) All 100 schools: 67.5 each other school in the comparison

Where its courses fall

4%Far left92–100

15%Left75–91

74%Center-left59–74

7%Center42–58

<1%Center-right26–41

0%Right9–25

0%Far right0–8

253 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

L77 366 · Caste: Sexuality, Race and Globalization.96

Women's & Gender Studies

Be it sati or enforced widowhood, arranged or love marriage, the rise of national leaders like Indira Gandhi and Kamala Harris, or the obsession with "fair" skin, caste shapes possibilities and perceptions for billions. In this class we…

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L77 3002 · Feminist Fire!: Radical Black Women in the 20th95

Women's & Gender Studies

Century Black women have been at the forefront of the Black radical tradition since its inception. Oen marginalized in both the scholarship and the popular memory, there exists a long unbroken chain of women who have organized around the…

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L77 3014 · Queering Citizenship: Gender/Abolition95

Women's & Gender Studies

"Queering Citizenship: Gender/Abolition" asks how the struggle for gender self-determination overlaps with struggles to refigure, transform, and abolish political institutions. We will ask: How have queer thinkers/social movements in the…

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Furthest right

L22 357 · All Measures Short of War28

History

This course focuses on the return of great power competition in the 21st century. In particular, it examines the security challenges facing the United States in the form of strategic competition from revisionist states (Russia and China)…

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L11 105 · The Endgame of Entrepreneurship: Leveraging43

Economics

Capitalism for Good Historically, profit has been a key driver of human behavior. In this course, students will learn to take advantage of the profit-seeking motive of capitalism while also learning from the mistakes and unintended…

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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 66.7 to 68.8; 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.

Washington University in St. Louis by department (share of courses described from the left)

Department	Left-framed share	Courses
Sociology	55.1%	49	view
Women's & Gender Studies	50%	100	view
Ethnic & African American Studies	42.0%	81	view
History	20.8%	183	view
Religious Studies	13.5%	96	view
Anthropology	12.4%	251	view
Political Science	6.3%	127	view
English & Comparative Literature	6.1%	231	view
Art & Art History	4.7%	686	view
Psychology	3.1%	64	view
Philosophy	1.3%	76	view
Economics	0%	50	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
Washington University in St. Louis	mean_bias_score	67.7	66.7 – 68.8	1,994	253
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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