UC Berkeley School of Law tied for ninth best law school in the United States according to U.S. News.

The law school has moved up three places in the rankings from last year, according to Berkeley Law spokesperson Michael Bazeley. He added that the increase in ranking occurred because the campus provided U.S. News with improved data points over the past year.

There are four areas that U.S. News considers when it ranks law schools. These include the overall quality based on survey answers provided by judges, alumni and other schools, the combination of the incoming students’ GPA and LSAT scores, the employment rate of graduates and the amount that schools spend on faculty and support, according to Bazeley.

Bazeley said the rankings are valuable to prospective students who are deciding between schools. “US News rankings are just one small measure of the quality of a school. But we are always gratified when the US News editors recognize Berkeley Law as one of the top law schools in the country,” Bazeley said in an email.