Tartan Day in Balboa Park, San Diego

[Jock Scot]

That’s quite possible. There’s a terminology difference I’ve been missing. The usage of college and university appears to be different here than in the UK. In the US, the distinction is more subtle and the terms often get used interchangeably. If someone here told me they were a college graduate, I’d assume that they had earned at least a bachelors degree.

In polite circles in the UK, one notes the tie and the viewer might just say, "I see that you went to Oxbridge or the RAC or wherever" and the answer would be "indeed I did" that would then be the end of that particular conversation. We don't ask what qualification they might have achieved and rarely are we told, the conversation might move on to "my cousin went there you might have known him/her? After that the conversation usually takes a non academic route.