How tough is .edu competition?

[MrStitch]

I was doing some research on a specific niche for a site, and found one that has a lot of google searchs for, but the top sites in that niche are primarily subpages of EDU sites, or a subpage of some other type of site.

If I make a site specific to that niche, and target the content, would I stand a chance at getting into the top ten? How hard are EDU's to overcome?

Primary purpose of the site will be information for the user, and of course Adsense for me.