Do college grades even matter at all? I mean maybe for your very first job or for grad school applications, but in both cases they're still going to be a minor factor unless the grades are awful.
For most of the professional schools (medical, law, and dental school) it is by far the most important metric. Business school is a close second and might have a little more leeway but it is still the biggest blocker of attendance for most applicants. Sure you can get into some business or law school, but after a certain point the ranking of the institution does matter for most people unfortunately.
Even for grad school it is still a very important metric, especially as not all undergrads are at R1 institutions where they can participate in (non bs) research. But lets say you're really just in it for the education and don't care, even then many valuable/important jobs only recruit from the top x schools in there respective fields.
So I would say yea, it does matter. In fact it's one of the few things that matter in many of those school applications.
I would not say grades are by far the most important metric for law school admissions. They are important, but LSAT is right up there as well. And of course, the undergraduate institution matters as well. You won’t get into HLS with a 4.0 from a no-name school, unless you’ve got a 175 (out of 180) on the LSAT.
But the power of the LSAT may wane, as they are removing the logic games, which was a big differentiator.
Sure, I'll concede that the LSAT is equally as important as your gpa. In my experience adcoms (just slightly) prefer high gpa's over high test score, in the case of applicants known as splitters, as the gpa can be a stronger signal of how consistently hardworking a candidate is. But my point still stands in response to the parent comment that they're extremely important
Pretty much this - they provide student rankings for graduate and professional admissions, and practically that seems to be their primary function (rather than improving educational outcomes, which isn't served well by stack ranking/grading on a curve.)
Even for grad school it is still a very important metric, especially as not all undergrads are at R1 institutions where they can participate in (non bs) research. But lets say you're really just in it for the education and don't care, even then many valuable/important jobs only recruit from the top x schools in there respective fields.
So I would say yea, it does matter. In fact it's one of the few things that matter in many of those school applications.