Sociology
Course is offered every semester. Course is offered every semester. This course offers a new way to think about American and global capitalism, focusing on our values, our intertwined economic, environmental and social crises exploding in…
All schools · Religious-affiliated
Boston College
Boston College's course descriptions average 67 on the 100-to-0 ruler: clearly left of center. Across all 100 schools, the average is 67.5, so Boston College reads 0.5 points further right.
Liberal (100)center (50)Conservative (0)
Where its courses fall
0%Far left92–100
23%Left75–91
68%Center-left59–74
9%Center42–58
0%Center-right26–41
0%Right9–25
0%Far right0–8
Underlined: words the model quoted from the description when we asked it, after scoring, to explain its score.
Furthest left
English & Comparative Literature
Early modern Ireland is one of the places where modernity is trialled. The extreme violence of theTudor and Stuart conquest, the settlement of English and Scots in the plantations which followed,the displacement of native lites by an…
Sociology
Crime and social justice are considered not as distinct, but indivisible constructs produced through specific knowable institutional/personal practices. Course allows students to analyze perspectives on the process through which laws and…
Furthest right
Economics
Innovation and entrepreneurship have been the key drivers behind economic growth across developed economies and even more so in the U.S. However, innovations and entrepreneurism develop under a high degree of risk and uncertainty and, in…
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 65.5 to 68.5; 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.
Boston College by department (share of courses described from the left)
| Department | Left-framed share | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociology | 34.8% | 66 | view |
| Ethnic & African American Studies | 33.3% | 48 | view |
| English & Comparative Literature | 14.8% | 135 | view |
| History | 14.8% | 122 | view |
| Religious Studies | 6.1% | 196 | view |
| Economics | 6.0% | 117 | view |
| Philosophy | 3.8% | 106 | view |
| Art & Art History | 3.5% | 86 | view |
| Psychology | 2.4% | 84 | view |
| Political Science | 0% | 89 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston College | mean_bias_score | 67 | 65.5 – 68.5 | 1,049 | 106 |
| 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.