<p>considering many colleges and universities have operating budgets over $150,000,000, it is pretty safe to say that application fees don't constitute a "money making operation" for schools. and remember, a $45,000 price tag still doesn't come close to the actual cost of operating an institution/student enrolled. and, just to really make you all feel bad (just kidding, of course ;)), if you knew how much admissions professionals made, you'd really feel sorry for us!</p>
<p>FYI - Penn's budget in 2006 was over $4.0 billion...it's a big university, but still, the $1.4 million the Undergrad Admissions Office brought in does very little...
<a href="http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v52/n28/budget.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v52/n28/budget.html</a></p>