That sounds like a terrible deal - why would someone pay thousands of dollars for the chance to maybe buy the service you wanted in the first place? It only makes sense if it's a prestigious university whose name guarantees you a job or PhD slot somewhere
I'm not sure, many of the flagship universities? I know UW now allows you to enter the CSE program from the start (you apply to UW CSE from highschool), but that wasn't the case when I was in school.
What portion of universities are doing that?