lol safety school

Filling out grad school apps right now /sci/.  How do I get past the feeling that I'm going through a shitton of work and paying app fees out the ass just for the privilege of getting rejection letters from some of the best universities in the country?

Princeton, $90 - "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU FUCKING WISH!"
Berkeley, $70 - "Fuck off you redneck loser"
Harvard, $105 - "What? Not even one letter of recommendation from a Fields medalist??"
Pennsylvania, $70 - "When we say 3.5 GPA minimum, we *MEAN* 3.5 GPA minimum.  I dgaf if your GRE and Putnam scores *are* higher than 75% of our current students."
Stanford, $105 - "B.S. from the University of Where?? HAHAHA"
UCLA, $70 - "Uhhhh, no. *smirk*"
Illinois, $60 - "Dear Applicant: Fuck off and die kthx."
University of Buttfuck-Nowhere, $45 - "Sure, c'mon over!  Enjoy never being able to find a decent job, though."

Ah, fuck it.  At least the University of Buttfuck-Nowhere is in a nice town. :/

Wait, you have to pay just to submit an application? Are there no parts of the American education system that isn't designed to make people give up on school and do menial labour?