John Baylor. It’s a name that resonates with most Nebraskans. Up there with the likes of Tom Osborne and Warren Buffet. A name that, for many, means hope, opportunity and hopefully a higher composite score on standardized tests.

Baylor has changed tens of thousands of students’ lives through his creation of OnToCollege, an online and in-person test prep organization. They have classes for the ACT, SAT and even ones for general career readiness.

Although many people know his name, few know who he really is and the story behind his journey of starting OnToCollege.

Baylor was born in Lincoln and then moved near Boston, Massachusetts when he was four with his mother and two brothers. He spent the rest of his childhood in the Boston area, but came back to Lincoln for a few years during elementary school, every summer and Christmas. He graduated from Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts and then attended Stanford University for four years.

While Baylor was at Stanford, he was a part of a few plays, which acted as inspiration for his future in New York, where he moved after college. Right when he moved to NYC, he worked on Wall Street for a few years as a bond sales representative, but decided he wanted to pursue acting. He attended numerous acting classes and auditions for many shows.

Then, he got a phone call from a friend who needed a roommate in Los Angeles. Baylor took him up on the offer.

“I really was quite serious about it,” Baylor said. “I got a commercial agent. I had an acting agent. You can see how it turned out. It didn’t exactly lead to fame and riches, but I’m so glad I did [it].”

At this time, all of his friends were going to business or law school, but this experience of acting gave him courage, and he realized that he wanted to be a teacher.

However, he doesn’t regret these experiences. “When I’m actually [acting], I’m not in love with it,” Baylor said. He believes that to be an actor, it has to be a person’s calling, their life-long dream. While he enjoyed this experience and acting opportunity, it wasn’t his passion.

Although Baylor knew he wanted to be a teacher, it wasn’t a pressing need. “I’m 24. What’s the rush? I can do that when I’m 29,” he said. “It gave me this window of time to try these adventures.”

This window allowed him to start acting in LA, be a sportscaster in California and get a job as a waiter at a five-star restaurant where he was fired for spilling a drink on a customer.

During this time period, he still needed to feed himself and pay for rent. So, when a family with eight children approached him asking for a tutor, he couldn’t refuse. “I started OnToCollege soon thereafter,” Baylor said.

He started the organization in 1991 in Los Angeles, and brought it to Lincoln in 1994. Beginning as just a survival job to support his acting, it turned into something much more.

OnToCollege is an organization dedicated to helping students succeed on their standardized tests, and it could only be possible with the contributions of Baylor. They offer both in-person and online classes to help students learn the ins and outs of the ACT and SAT.

Baylor started this organization to help students. “I used to think that you need to make a public impact beyond just raising good kids,” he said. But he has since disavowed that. Now, Baylor believes that if you raise good children, you have made your public impact and served your community.

“I have held myself to higher standards, and I can’t just have a self indulgent life,” Baylor said. “I’ve got to take the gifts I’ve been given…and use them to bring joy and impact.” With OnToCollege, he does just that, and more.

OnToCollege is now in more than 500 high schools in 29 states. It is an online, one-year site license that a school purchases that allows all of their students to get full access to all of the OnToCollege content. This includes ACT prep, a pre-ACT course, college and career readiness programs and all of their SAT courses. This program is particularly special because students can access this information at school and at home 24/7.

“It’s a canvas that can absolutely change lives,” Baylor said. “It’s so affordable to provide this life changing, dream catching, score jumping engine for students.” These programs are special because students can use them on their own, and it can have a huge impact.

“We’ve got a lot of small town Nebraska schools, [and] that’s some pretty special stuff because you can really rock their world,” Baylor said. “If you want something else, this is your ticket. Jump that score.”

All around LSE, sophomores and juniors are stressing about standardized tests, especially the ACT. Even though it is just a test, it feels like a score determines a student’s entire future. College admissions use ACT scores to determine whether or not a student is accepted, so a few points could make a huge difference. With all of this stress, sometimes it feels hopeless. However, Baylor has given these students an opportunity.

“It always has been an unbelievable opportunity, but because so many of your generation have gotten mixed messages about test optional, and they’re intimidated by the test, they’re not digging in,” Baylor said. “We don’t see the same number of kids preparing hard for this test.” He is trying to change this by motivating students and helping them succeed.

“You can absolutely do well. Innate skill certainly helps, but you don’t need it,” Baylor said. “You can learn the 18 grammar rules. You can learn the basic math.”

In addition, Baylor believes these tests and scores are more important than they ever have been, and that is why he wants to help students gain their motivation back and take opportunities to improve. His class does just that.

“When you come to my class, it’s not gonna be drudgery,” Baylor said. “You’re gonna be laughing. You’re gonna have fun.” His students agree with this as well.

Junior Scott von Scheliha took an ACT prep class with Baylor to improve his score. “He’s funny. He makes jokes and he makes it fun to learn,” von Scheliha said. “It’s easy to remember things when you enjoy learning about it and enjoy the way he taught it.”

In the class, von Scheliha learned a lot of important strategies to help him take the ACT and how to maximize his score. Overall, it helped his ACT score jump six points from his pre-ACT score.

“The time you spend now preparing and jumping your score will ultimately save you money in the future when you apply for college,” von Scheliha said. In addition, Baylor claims that his class can commonly increase a student’s score by two points, but six point jumps are also quite common.

Even with these score improvements, he is able to keep the curriculum short and concise.

“The shortest course I know of offered by any competitor is minimum 40 hours. That’s pretty standard,” Baylor expressed. “Ours is maximum, if you do everything, 15 hours with at least the same impact.” This is done by design to instill a feeling of confidence in students.

“That sends a message subconsciously, if not overtly. Like, okay, I can handle this. And that’s half the battle, belief, right? Self-belief,” Baylor said.

Outside of his class and knowledge about standardized tests, Baylor also has many pieces of life advice for students. He wants people to know that there are three important decisions throughout life.

The third most important is whether one will go to college and where. The second is what vocation, or job, one will chase, and the most important, according to Baylor, is one’s choice of life partner.

“So don’t take any of those three choices lightly,” Baylor advised. Overall, Baylor wants students to strive for excellence, even if it is difficult.

“If you try your hardest and fail, that hurts. For a time,” Baylor said. “But if you never try your hardest, you never find out what could have been; that hurts for a lifetime.”