system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do grad schools actually care where you went for undergrad or the rigor of your undergrad program or just simply your grades?

I get mixed answers lurking through these posts. From what I read, it just feels like they care about grades and ability to take exams and even if you have good experience, it won't matter because your grades aren't of that of some magna cum laude superstar.

That is just my impression anyway.
gpt
It probably depends on the field. Within economics for example, what grad schools care about is who your references are. Recommendation letters are a method to discover who is serious about research and who profs think will do well in grad school. For example, if you went to a state school but performed at the top of your class and impressed a prof who is known within a subfield or knew the right people at a top school to write you a recommendation letter that they would trust, that greatly boosts your chances with the admission committee at that school. On the other hand, if you went to a top school but worked on profs whose research interests did not align with yours or who you did not do as great of a job with, you won't get the same boost.