You're certainly not cheating by asking this question, but I think you are right in that there may really be no firm answer. It all depends on what those particular judges want to see.
Much of the art taught in college art departments these days is very experimental and abstract (video performance art, and that sort of thing). Submitting realistic work may not get you anywhere if it's that kind of place. On the other hand, if they're really teaching drawing and painting at the particular school you're looking at, your best representational work may very well win you some nice $$$. You do some good stuff, Matthew, and I think it would be recognized as such, but only IF it's a school that values realism.
My advice is to check out the kind of work the instructors and judges themselves create. If that's not possible at least check out the kind of work the students are turning out. If it's what you want to learn how to do, then submit your best stuff and see what happens.
The same advice would hold true whenever you're choosing where to attend college, if you decide to study art when that time comes. A scholarship to attend the wrong school won't help you. Above all else: see what kind of work the teachers and students are producing and only apply to that school if you want to learn how to do the same kind of work that they are doing. Stories abound from artists (like myself) who spent four wasted years of art college hoping to learn to draw and paint and coming away with no useful skills whatsoever.
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