I started saving for PhD admissions 2nd year of Uni. I aimed for the top 10 schools, which meant I needed ~$1200. I skipped meals and other essentials to do this, hoping it would pay off. No one should have to go through this, or limit application numbers due to it.
Here @UCIrvine we have fee waivers for a lot of different reasons: https://grad.uci.edu/admissions/applying-to-uci/fee-waivers.php … I definitely recommend people check it out if you have need!
