As one of my professors once said, a University is a series of Colleges connected with plumbing.

I know it breaks the budget, but an electric guitar and amp is a dream for geeks. You can build most effects pedals as they are not all that complicated, there's the music element, the chicks, the drugs. plus you get to rock out. Honestly I learned as much about electronics from playing guitar and building effects pedals as I did building robots in FIRST Robotics competitions. http://www.smallbearelec.com/home.html has all the appropriate links.