Tennis ain't cheap. You should know that by now. But even a partial athletic scholarship could help your case considerably. Unfortunately, nabbing one is no easy task. Given NCAA rules and regulations and the financial limitations of many tennis programs, the majority of college tennis players get offered only partial scholarships—even some of the top players need to rely on other forms of financial aid.

So yeah, just get a partial degree at a partial university and you're good to go…partially.

Tennis is an equivalency sport, meaning that each college program has a set amount of scholarship money that it can distribute however it chooses. Division-I women's schools have it best, with the equivalent of 8 full scholarships to allocate between its players (source).

For men at the D-I level, that number is only 4.5. D-II men's programs also get the equivalent of 4.5 scholarships to distribute, while women get 6. Junior college programs for both men and women receive the equivalent of 9 full scholarships. D-III schools, however, are not permitted to offer athletic scholarships. Also, the average D-I scholarship is around $15,000 (source). Yeah, good luck paying rent with that.

So, with all that to keep in mind, here are several words of advice: get excellent grades and test scores. Although that's true for every NCAA sport, it's especially important for tennis players to get other financial aid based on academic performance (merit-based scholarships, etc.) since it's borderline impossible to land a full scholarship.

It's cool to do well in school—and also potentially lucrative. Yep, you heard it here first.