There is something confusing me whether it matters if I go to a college or a university for some type of engineering degree. If I get a bachelor’s degree in, say in mechanical engineering in college, how will it be different than if I went to a university for it? Will it look better on my resume if I rather went to a university for the same degree?
There is no specific difference in the United States. Choose the school that is most highly ranked for mechanical engineering.
The college/university distinction doesn’t matter so much as the reputation of your engineering school, and even that’s only really important if you want to do grad school or work for some of the more picky employers.
In theory, universities offer graduate degrees and colleges don’t, so going to a university would allow you to take more advanced courses and do some research if you’re so inclined. In reality, some colleges do offer graduate degrees, so it comes down to the individual school (again).
If you don’t mind my asking, where are you thinking of going?
No.
Medical College of Ohio, for example (now merged into the University of Toledo), which, of course, awarded M.D. degrees.
Various colleges of law that aren’t university affiliated still abound, as well.
The correct distinction is that a University is a collection of colleges, where a college is a single institution of higher learning, which is not divided up administratively into separate collegiums. This definition should be taken with a grain of salt; some “colleges” actually combine more than one actual “school” under their roof.
And don’t forget Institutes, Academies, and Schools. MIT, Georgia Tech, Cal Tech, Virginia Tech - all institutes (among others). The Colorado School of Mines is also a good one, but in specific fields (mining and petroleum engineering). And the military academies also provide training in engineering, plus they offer a full schedule of structured extra-curricular activities. 
It often depends on what field you’re getting into. Places like Harvey Mudd College have a good reputation in the engineering world, and Dartmouth College would also be well respected. The University of Phoenix, not so much. My experience (as an engineer) is that the specific program doesn’t matter nearly as much as it does in some fields (like law). I’ve known MIT grads who were OK, but not great, engineers, and I’ve known excellent engineers from what would be considered lower-rank state universities.
Never mind; I was wrong.
We are talking about the US, right? In Canada the distinction is important; what we call a college I believe Americans would call a community college.
The terms are used differently in just about every English-speaking country. In Britain, ‘university’ denotes an institution which can award degrees, and ‘college’ one which cannot do so in its own right, although some can by affiliation. This is except for the different use of the term ‘college’ in Oxford & Cambridge, or collegiate university structures such as in London or Wales, or for the Royal College of Music which awards its own degrees, or…
to follow on from GorillaMan
…or… my secondary school which is called Victoria College, because when it was founded women were not admitted to Queen’s University Belfast, and my school was able to offer affiliate itself to the University and offer University courses and graduate degrees to young ladies of the right background who had daddies who could pay their fees.
Since women can now attend QUB, now it’s just a nice girls’ Grammar school.
The way I learned it was that a college is a school specific to an area of study. A university is merely a collection of colleges such as a college of arts and letters, law, medicine, etc.
The school you went to for an undergrad degree will matter some for your first job. Beyond that your work experience counts more. It may matter for getting into grad school, but once you have a MS degree, few will care where you did your undergrad work. This continues to become more important with more advanced degrees. The school that awarded your PhD is certainly a factor, but the MS you got at State U. before that isn’t considered much if any. Even if is a top flight school, if ALL your degrees are from one institution, it will count against you some…candidates who have shown success in different enviroments are valued more.
This is not much of a general rule. Consider, for example, The College of William and Mary (contains a law school, business school, and multiple PhD programs), Darmouth College (ditto), and Vassar College (Master’s programs). Although there are general trends, in many ways “College” is just a traditional, vernacular term for post-secondary education without any specific meaning.
The only thing I’d add is this: certain engineering schools are ABETaccredited in the U.S. This may or may not make a difference to you. For example, going to an ABET accredited school was important to me since I was getting a Civil degree. For other types of engineering, it may be insignificant.
There are a few other circumstances where an ABET accredited degree is an advantage, or required – professional licensure, for example, or some scholarships and employment in some organizations. Also, ABET accreditation assures you that some minimum quality standards have been met (I’m actually a volunteer ABET program evaluator). Programs aren’t required to have an ABET accreditation, so a program without one might be perfectly good, but you’re on your own as far as determining the program’s quality.
One last thing the OP should pay attention to is the difference between engineering and engineering technology degrees – they’re similar, but not equivalent.
Very important. In my State (and most others, IIRC) an ABET certification is mandatory to sit for the PE.
Yes, and as amazing as it may seem, I can personally attest to people who went through all 4 years of an Engineering Technology degree and did not realize that it was not an “Engineering” Degree that would let them be a PE (then again, I knew a guy who dropped $10,000 for one year of tuition at a college that did not actually have offer diplomas in what he was studying!). You just have to wonder why they never…well, wondered.
Thank you for volunteering. I don’t think ABET or any of our engineering programs would be where they are without the help of folks like you. Many times we forget to thank the people who help to make things happen … we do appreciate your hard work. 
Una: sad but true. I run into that quite often, unfortunately 
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Though this is certainly true for the Liberal Arts, and perhaps even the pure sciences though I am less sure, it is far less important in engineering. In the Liberal Arts a good deal of the curriculum is dependent on what your professors think happens to be important and therefore a variety of environments and exposures are critical. In engineering the topics are a bit more universal and the opinions of your professors are thought to be less influential. I have not seen anyone looked down on for getting multiple degrees from the same university as an engineer.
Mandatory plug/Google hit for my Alma Mater, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Engineering, biomed, sciences, humanities, architecture, business/entrepreneurship; full university offerings from what was once a narrow focus.
This is true. “College” is the preferred term among Americans for higher education, when speaking of it as something you need get financial aid for, or something that you strive to get into, or something that you might have missed out on. Traditionally we never use the term University in expressions like “While I was at university”, although I have caught myself doing so here a few times because I know we have Canadian and European members here to whom “college” can mean something different.
Understandable - and I know people who do or have used the phrase themselves over here, despite attending a college rather than a university. Because it’s much less hassle than for them to explain that they’re studying at a specialist college, but are nonetheless on an undergraduate course.