I mainly want the graduate degree so that I would understand the process top to bottom but is it overkill? 

Perhaps that's overkill at this stage...

A bit overkill for what you were mentioning, but it's interesting to think about!

Seems overkill to me.

I’d really like to shield my personal assets from this endeavor - so I’m thinking LLC AND umbrella policy, but that might be overkill. 

I talk about it here (with a lot of other details, lots in the comments too)-https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/08/1...It's probably overkill for what you're asking, but what you say is true and in my opinion, you don't need the LLCs.

For the foreseeable future we will only be doing 1 flip at a time, so the LLC per property just to handle profit sharing seems like overkill to me.

The previous owner of my quad was on a 2x/year treatment plan, however I'm not sure if this is overkill or not.

The newer seismic codes are overkill, IMO, as many have been lobbied for hard by Simpson; there are many homes on the sides of hills in LA from the 60’s that have no seismic retrofitting and are still standing.Before going too far down the path of retrofitting your CMU building I would make sure that it isn’t already filled with rebar and mortar, as well as bond beams.

It really doesn’t take more than 6 SFR in vegas to support yourself and 12 is overkill if you didn’t grow up super rich.