No such thing as stupid questions

so i'm canadian and i've always used the word "university" to refer to universities and "college" to refer to colleges. so if i'm going to university instead of college, i'd never say i'm going to college.

but i think i've noticed that a lot of americans (or american media) seem to use the two words interchangeably sometimes? for example saying they're "going to college" or "in college" even if it's actually a university.

is this true?