Competitive Public Photography Colleges?

I know I'll immediately get people saying that a photography degree is useless, but I'm at the point in my life when I haven't used up all of my GI Bill and I'm waiting out 47 to go back into my boring federal job.

I want to push myself to make a good portfolio and send it out, just to see if I could make it into a competitive school. It's not an ego thing, it's a mid-life crisis thing. Any suggestions?