<p>Hm…In the past years, I did internships at laboratories and attended AP/EA at Carnegie Mellon. Note that you don’t have to spend a penny sometimes for great opportunities; MITES is definitely an excellent program, and I had a full scholarship covering literally everything at AP/EA. Laboratories provide great experiences, and if you get lucky, you can be acknowledged in papers. My honest suggestion is that if a program requires you to pay thousands of dollars to participate in, chances are that it isn’t as good as some others.</p>