Mike Meru, a 37-year-old orthodontist, made a big investment in his education. As of Thursday, he owed $1,060,945.42 in student loans.
美国犹他州德雷珀市，37岁的口腔正畸医生麦克·梅鲁(Mike Meru)为了读书债台高筑。截至5月24日，他的助学贷款负债总额已高达1,060,945.42美元。
Mr. Meru pays only $1,589.97 a month - not enough to cover the interest, so his debt from seven years at the University of Southern California grows by $130 a day. In two decades, his loan balance will be $2 million.
梅鲁先生每个月只还1,589.97美元——这还不足以覆盖利息，所以他在南加州大学求学七年累积下来的贷款正以每天130美元的速度增长。照这个速度，20年后他的贷款余额将增至200万美元。
He and his wife, Melissa, have become numb to the burden, focused instead on raising their two daughters. "If you thought about it every single day," Mrs. Meru said, "you'd have a mental breakdown."
梅鲁先生和他的妻子梅丽莎(Melissa)已经对这笔巨额负债感到麻木，他们一心想要好好抚养两个女儿成人。“如果每一天都想着这个问题，”梅鲁夫人称，“你必定会精神崩溃。”
Due to escalating tuition and easy credit, the U.S. has 101 people who owe at least $1 million in federal student loans, according to the Education Department. Five years ago, 14 people owed that much.
根据美国教育部发布的数据，随着学费上涨和信贷条件放宽，美国已经有101人的联邦助学贷款余额超过了100万美元。五年前，只有14人到此境地。
More could join that group. While the typical student borrower owes $17,000, the number of those who owe at least $100,000 has risen to around 2.5 million, nearly 6% of the borrowing pool, Education Department data show.
背负逾百万助学贷款的人数可能进一步增长。美国教育部的数据显示，虽然一般人的助学贷款金额在1.7万美元左右，但助学贷款金额超过10万美元的人已经增至250万人，接近助学贷款负债人总数的6%。
For graduate-school students especially, there is little incentive for universities to help put the brakes on big borrowing. The government essentially allows grad students to borrow any amount to cover tuition and living costs, with few guardrails on how the final sum will be repaid.
尤其是对研究生群体而言，各大院校几乎没有什么动力阻止学生申请大额借贷。对于研究生群体，他们可以贷款缴学费并覆盖生活费，政府本质上不为他们的贷款规模设限，对于如何还款也没太多约束条款。
More than a third of borrowers from one of the government's main graduate school lending programs have enrolled in some form of federal loan-forgiveness plan.
申请政府面向研究生的一个主要贷款项目获批学生中，超过三分之一的人已经报名参加了某种形式的联邦贷款减免计划。
Even the best planners might not have anticipated the sharp increases in tuition and student-loan interest rates from 2005 to 2012, Mr. Meru's tenure as a student. While the Federal Reserve was reducing interest rates to near zero to combat the recession, rates for grad students were as high as 8.5%.
即便是最深谋远虑的人可能也无法预料到，就在梅鲁先生求学期间，即2005-2012年，学费及助学贷款利率的上涨速度会如此惊人。尽管为抗击经济萧条，美联储将基准利率下调至接近为零的水平，但研究生助学贷款利率最高仍然达到8.5%。
For Mr. Meru, tuition at USC first went up during his second year. Interest rates followed. Halfway through dental school, he said, he started to worry about the soaring cost of his education.
梅鲁先生还记得，就在他就读后的第二年，南加州大学学费大涨。接下来便是利率上涨。在牙科学院学到一半，他就开始对教育成本的飙升感到忧心忡忡。
I'm sitting here saying, 'Holy crap! Should I really be doing this?' Mr. Meru recalled. " 'Should I drop out?' "
“我坐下来对自己说，‘天哪！我是不是真的该读这个书？’ ”梅鲁先生回忆道，“我是不是辍学算了？”
Mrs. Meru, 35, said she and her husband decided it was too late to turn back. If he quit or transferred to a cheaper school, he still owed for the loans he had already taken.
现年35岁的梅鲁夫人称，她和丈夫最终决定，回头为时已晚。如果梅鲁先生选择退学或者转学至学费更低的学校，他还是摆脱不了这笔已经借下的贷款。
Mr. Meru's financial records - provided to The Wall Street Journal - show he borrowed $601,506, a debt that swelled to more than $1 million by fees and interest.
根据梅鲁先生向《华尔街日报》提供的财务记录，他当时共借款601,506美元，而各项费用和利息已经让这笔贷款暴增至100多万美元。
Mr. Meru became so frustrated with the high interest rates that he helped start a national dental-student movement to lobby Congress to lower rates on grad students. The effort went nowhere.
不断飙升的利率令梅鲁先生挫败不已，他因此推动发起了一场全国性的牙科学生运动，目的是游说美国国会下调研究生助学贷款利率。但一切都是徒劳。