There are layers and layers of colleges and universities (universities offer advanced degrees, that's the difference). There are public, private and religious (with widely varying degrees of affiliation and indoctrination), even within some of the bigger state systems like NY and Cali campuses and student bodies differ greatly. Huge diff between UT in Austin and Texas A&M even though its the same system. Same deal with the Cal ones, Davis is pretty straight straight up science/ag, UC Santa Cruz is the motherlode of freaks who only know agriculture they can smoke and named their school mascot the Banana Slug. Yes, "Go Slugs!". That same system has Berkeley and UCLA two of the best schools in their key fields in the world, and its has a couple of campuses that are pretty much commuter/career based places that even the people who live next door to them don't know.
The most liberal tend to be the top tier of private liberal arts schools (wow, that's shocking that people who study liberal arts might end up being liberal and all) that are very selective and also very expensive (and have a bunch of other stuff that that people who just want to go to college and all would really chafe at*). Places like Stowe, or Oberlin, Carlton, St. John's (the one in Annapolis and Santa Fe, there are several) love people with quirky parts about them, and you would not even be the strangest person there - not even in the running. The big public schools from the liberal states (Cali, NY, the Northeast) are pretty open, but they are run by the state and don't get any more liberal then the state does, except for UT Austin. The big private universities (Duke, USC, Auburn) tend more conservative (they are run by alumni). And the private religious school run the range from totally open (UCSF run by the Jesuits) to Third Reich (Oral Robert's, Liberty University, and not too long ago, Baylor).
Like anything else with a large selection it pays to know what you want and then track it down.
* - several of my friends went to those schools, At St. Johns you don't pick classes, they program is the program and you just do it. No electives. One of the others requires all students to live on campus, has classes 6 days a week, and only seniors are allowed to have cars (not that it matters, they were miles from nowhere.) One runs year round, no summer off.
