Technical issues have made applying to college more stressful than usual this year.

Common Application, the college application site used by students and more than 400 colleges and universities across the country, was either inaccessible or exceedingly slow for most of its users on Monday afternoon, Forbes reported.

Users have encountered errors with "Print Preview" PDF file of their application such as text running into the footer or a change in font format, and when submitting their applications, along with many other issues. The malfunctions occur days before the first round of Early Action and Early Decision deadlines. The new software the application site adopted on Aug. 1 could be the source of the issues.

Jeff McLaughlin, dean of admissions at St. Olaf College, said colleges' reliance on one application company has exposed a flaw.

"We do not have a strong Plan B," McLaughlin said in an interview. "That's not good planning on our part. We had gotten complacent because there had not been problems with the Common Application."

Malfunctions of the college website have prompted some universities to push back their deadlines and others to offer potential students alternate ways to apply to their colleges.

Bloomberg News reported some universities are informing Common Application users about alternate ways to apply to colleges.

Malfunctions with the college application site have propelled Princeton University to offer the Universal College Application. Bloomberg News reported that Southern Methodist University emailed thousands of potential applicants about its own online form.

Martin Mbugua, a spokesman for Princeton, said a second application portal to students as an alternative to Common Application students is crucial.

"It became necessary because the students and secondary schools have been facing challenges with the system, and we needed a functional online application," he told Bloomberg News.

According to the Common Application website, they are currently working to rectify these issues.