I had the opposite experience, but I did an undergrad in CS in university, not college. Learned lots of theory and algorithms, and low-level programming, but hardly did any practical stuff like app deployment.
In the US, there is no distinction between "college" and "university" like some places have. Here the difference is solely that a university is collection of colleges that share admittance and funding to some extent. I attended the college of arts and sciences at my university, but I easily could have taken (some) courses offered by the college of architecture and allied arts, had I been so inclined.
I wouldn't put much stock in word choices like that. Connotations vary so immensely around the world, it's best to presume they're synonyms unless context says otherwise.
A university offers graduate degrees. Colleges offer only up to bachelor degrees. There may not be a distinction in how people use the words, there is a difference in actual fact.
There are also plenty of 4 year institutions called "Colleges" here that are smaller too. Bowdoin College is a random example which even has a CS degree.
I wouldn't put much stock in word choices like that. Connotations vary so immensely around the world, it's best to presume they're synonyms unless context says otherwise.