Mature student Aoife Leonard (24), from Donegal, is battling with the shortage of student accommodation and has been searching for a room for one month.
"A lot of landlords require professionals only, so we are competing with them and new graduates who have a bigger budget," she says. "Although they are sympathetic to your position, they have no intention of offering you a room."
Some students have been told by letting agents that rental accommodation will free up from October. Until then, many will "sleep on a friend's couch" or, alternatively, live in overcrowded housing units.
David O'Donovan (21), who has commuted from Newbridge in Co Kildare to Dublin for the past two years, has been coming to Dublin most days in search of a room. "My price budget has gone up by €100 since I started looking because of the accommodation demand, and it's what you have to do to get a decent-sized room," he says.
Similarly, second-year UCD students Sharon Tomas and Michelle Clancy, from Mayo and Leitrim respectively, have been travelling to Dublin for two months and have failed to find affordable housing.
"In UCD, on-campus accommodation is given solely to first-year students and foreign students. It's going to be tough to find somewhere and the cost of travelling from home is so expensive."
UCD Students' Union accommodation officer Gavan Reilly has appealed to owners of homes near the UCD campus to make vacant space available to third-level students.
According to Mr Reilly, UCD staff members are sifting through a mailing list containing up to 500 accommodation queries from students and family members, while between 100 and 150 students are calling into the accommodation office each day.