Photo by jbhaber.

Oh, so many happy students receiving their expensive pieces of parchment on the National Mall today tomorrow! In addition to smiling ear-to-ear as they complete four years of undergraduate study, said grads are, if they read the Post this morning, probably just excited that they graduated from high school in 2006 and not 2010.

Daniel de Vise digs up some discouraging numbers reflecting the recession’s effects on college admissions offices — namely, that a lot more high school seniors are getting wait-listed. For instance, the University of Virginia — by far the local institution with the longest wait-list — is telling 35.2 percent of applicants that they’re good enough to be accepted, but not quite good enough to get in. Of that number, about 300 — or two percent of total applicants — will be moved off the list and offered admission. Other institutions of higher learning are wait-listing more students than they have accepted in their respective Classes of 2014.

And to think: all this stress and waiting, just for the right to pay upwards of $200,000 so that these kids can eventually struggle to find meaningful employment later on! Who says the system doesn’t work?