system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I hate justifying the practise of charging applicants to *apply* to study by paying application fees - is there any way around this?

This really grates. It's worse than when you pay *just to get in* a nightclub and then spend the night buying overpriced drinks - it's like paying an entry fee to three nightclubs, when you're only going to go into one of them. I'm not exactly rolling in it, but three universities are charging me a total of £145 just to apply to do a PhD with them. It's outrageous when you consider the fees they are charging to study with them. If it's about keeping application numbers down, how come some universities don't charge?
gpt
If you're not receiving funding of some sort, don't do a Ph.D.  You should not be the one paying your tuition.

Yeah, the fees seek to discourage non-serious applicants, or those who'd otherwise take a shotgun approach to applications.  If you really can't afford it, you could write to the department and they might waive the fee.