Lead America National Student Conference

My 12 year old just got a letter "inviting" him to attend a Lead American conference this summer. The options are either for a Leadership conference that are being held at George Washington University, Cal, Stanford, UCLA, DePaul or Columbia or a Medicine and Science conference that are being held at Johns Hopkins, Columbia, UCLA or DePaul. These are all 5-10 day conferences that cost around $3000 not counting travel and incidentals.

Has anyone had any experience with these conferences? I have read reviews online and some say they are great, some say they are a scam for money. I am sure that it is a money making scheme, but I can live with that if I am investing $3000 in my son's future. If I am wasting it to send him to a glorified summer camp then I can find a better way to spend it.

The letter claims that he was recommended by a teacher at his school. My wife and I are going to talk to her next week when she returns from a field trip to D.C. My understanding is that these groups get children's names from services and use teacher's names to make the invitations sound more official.