Another great opportunity is the
University Rover Challenge hosted by the Mars Society. There is a very challenging terrain navigation task and engineering challenge.
There are quite a few FIRST alumni on some of the teams that have participated. The Missouri S&T team was even at CMP last year.
One of the advantages of these competitions is the tasks don't change like FIRST. This is great in a college-level environment because you can work on refining your concepts over the limited time you have in college.