(Bloomberg) -- The University of California Berkeley Law School said it will join Yale and Harvard in halting its participation in the US News rankings of the nation’s top law schools.

“Although rankings are inevitable and inevitably have some arbitrary features, there are aspects of the US News rankings that are profoundly inconsistent with our values and public mission,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky said in a letter posted on the Berkeley Law School website.

The ranking “penalizes schools that help students launch careers in public service law,” and “discounts graduates who are pursuing advanced degrees,” Chemerinsky said. It also creates incentives to diminish “things we think are critical to our profession and role in society,” such as focusing on per-student expenditure and student debt, he said. 

Yale Law School, the top school in the rankings every year, withdrew on Wednesday as Dean Heather Gerken called the criteria “profoundly flawed.” It was followed by Harvard Law School, ranked No. 4. Dean John F. Manning said “it has become impossible to reconcile our principles and commitments with the methodology and incentives the US News rankings reflect.” 

The decision by Berkeley “is not about railing against rankings or complaining that they hurt us in some way,” Chemerinsky said. The law school currently holds the No. 9 spot in the rankings.  

US News & World Report LP said it has no plans to change its goals for the rankings. 

“The US News Best Law Schools rankings are for students seeking the best decision for their law education,” Eric Gertler, executive chairman and chief executive officer, said Wednesday. A spokesman declined additional comment Thursday.

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