Admissions Counselors develop many skills: active listening, interpersonal communication, counseling, problem solving, navigating travel reward programs, and so on.

At St. John’s, there is one additional skill that all staff must perfect—the art of wax sealing. Wait, what is that?! You read correctly, every admissions counselor in our office must learn how to use a stamp to wax seal each and every one of our admit letters!

In a time when everything is digital (yes, we do release admission decisions through an online application portal), we still feel that there is nothing more timeless and exciting than getting an official admission letter in the mail.

You might ask, how do you wax seal all of those letters? Well, here is an inside look!

How to wax seal

You will need:

1 glue gun
1 wax stick for every 3 envelopes
1 St. John’s stamp seal
1 cup of ice
*lots of paper/paper towel

Instructions:

1. Have a large working space with enough room to let envelopes dry
2. Turn on glue gun and insert wax stick 3 minutes before you are ready to start sealing
3. Set stamp seal on ice to cool down
4. Once wax begins dripping from the glue gun, make a practice wax droplet to make sure it is at the correct liquid consistency
5. Dry stamp before using
6. Make a quarter-sized wax circle on the bottom opening of the envelope flap
7. Make sure that the stamp is facing the correct orientation and drop onto the wax from the bottom to the top
8. You should see red wax around the edges of the stamp
9. Let sit for about 15 seconds
10. Pull the stamp off of the wax lightly
11. Return stamp to the cup of ice to cool down
12. Let envelope cool until wax is completely dry to touch