Short of manually deleting .git you can always find any commit, you can walk backwards through your reference lof if it comes to it, the only real risk is throwing out unstaged changes.

I would not expect rsync to have frequent disconnects, no.

I believe my local prices are in the realm of ~$150/credit hour. I am an advocate for free access to post-secondary education, but much of the discourse around egregious schooling costs are in reference to the substantially more expensive programs at full universities, state or private.

Are you thinking of Universities? State colleges are generally extremely affordable, particularly with aide if it is available to you.