What if colleges weren't ranked by what they can do for you, as those published by U.S. News & World Report are designed to show? What if a national college survey looked rather at what colleges are doing for the country? That's precisely the tack taken by Washington Monthly, which just released its 2011 national universities rankings.

"We all benefit when colleges produce groundbreaking research that drives economic growth, when they offer students from low-income families the path to a better life, and when they shape the character of future leaders," write the mag's editors. "And we all pay for it, through hundreds of billions of dollars in public subsidies. Everyone has a stake in how that money is spent."

This survey ranks schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

Earning the #7 spot in the National Universities category -- and a special note in the introduction -- is Case Western Reserve.

"One of the dangers of charging ever-higher tuition, as colleges have been doing for years, is that it can snuff out the natural altruism students often feel at that point in their lives. It’s hard to think about serving your country or community when you’re worried about servicing your student loans. But some colleges do make a conscious effort to emphasize larger obligations. Case Western Reserve is a well-known Ohio research university that shows up at a respectable number forty-one on the U.S. News rankings. It vaults all the way to number seven on our list due to an unusual commitment to service: Case Western students go into the Peace Corps in high numbers, the university spends a significant amount of work-study money on service, and it reports high levels of service participation by students and faculty."

Also making the grade is John Carroll University, which claimed the #6 in the Masters Universities category.

Read the entire survey here.