I’m saying this with love and respect, your stutter is not what’s “holding you back” in life. Your mindset and this belief of who you could/should be is holding you back, not the stutter itself. I’m in my mid 30’s and I also have a severe stutter that I’ve had since I was around 8 years old. I work in IT and constantly have to communicate with people. I stuttered horribly during my interviews, get locked up when introducing myself to people, I still can’t say my name when getting prescriptions or ordering fast food. All of those horrible things that make us feel that deeply rooted shame that exists in a lot of our hearts still happen. The biggest impact you can make on improving your life starts with accepting your stutter and loving that part of yourself instead of viewing it as something holding you back or making your life worse. Only then if it all will you be able to work with it. Your stutter is a part of you, it was something that most likely developed as a way of your young mind to protect you from whatever was happening at that time in life. Hating your stutter is hating yourself. I’m not going to give you that bullshit of “You have it better or worse than others blah blah blah” we all have to live with ourselves and not being able to effectively communicate fucking sucks. It’s really hard to deal with and I empathize with it so much. Most of us understand how lonely it is. Lastly I’d like to say that in spite of your stutter it sounds like you’ve accomplished a lot. 3 degrees is nothing to scoff at. You’re intelligent and well spoken. We just get stuck sometimes. Remember your stutter does not define you.