The point of the fee isn't to make money. Imagine how many people would have applied if it were free? They still need employees to read all of those application

The point of the fee isn't to make money. Imagine how many people would have applied if it were free? They still need employees to read all of those applications and they need to keep the quality of student up as high as possible (so they can't just outsource it, or use a lottery). Basically, your tuition could be even higher if they dropped the fee to apply.