Rabbit Run

Some departments do (biblical studies I believe) other do not (theology).

To add to the chorus: If you applied to the Mdiv at each of these schools, the odds are you'd likely get into at least one (barring anything problematic in your previous academic history etc.)

Ive know people who've done M.Div. + MTS successfully, so its definitely an option. They went to different schools for the different degrees in the cases I'm thinking of. The main other option is a one year STM/ThM, which is not a good idea imo unless you do it at same school where you did primary M*

I would encourage a visit to see if it would be a good fit, but I don't know how far a meeting with a professor would go since Masters admissions are (I believe) determined by a committee made of up people from the admissions department and select faculty. If you set up a visit with office of aadmissions and do well (i.e. can explain why PTS is a good place for you to continue your Masters work) then that will go a longer way than meeting with a professor (although you ought to try to do that to)

As a grad of PTS I can think of a number of students who transfered in from evangelical schools like Fuller, Gordon-Conwell, etc. Can think of a couple similar folks from YDS as well. Definitely at think that happens with some regularity.

In addition to the programs mentioned, also look at Drew and Villanova. Villanova has both a theology department and a philosophy program with a theological track.

Speaking as a PhD student in theology at PTS I agree that a PhD from Duke University (unclear if this applied to ThD through the Divinity School) will likely set you up to be more marketable than say a PhD from PTS. PTS has a decent placement record at smaller Christian liberal arts college and at seminaries (in fact we're #1 in placement here, https://www.ats.edu/uploads/resources/publications-presentations/documents/tenure-and-other-faculty-facts-part-2.pdf). A Duke PhD would likely do better in applications, particularly at less religiously affiliated place places like a state university or a religious studies department at a liberal arts college (yet PTS's theology department does have relatively recent grads at R1 places like Yale Divinity School and University of Chicago Divinity School). But the bigger issue is that there simply aren't many jobs in theology, regardless if your doctorate is from Yale, Duke, or Princeton Seminary. The R1 school is likely not going to be hiring a theologian regardless of where the degree is from. If you lurk the job boards for theologians, they're primarily postdocs, schools such as those in the UK, or small virtually unknown schools. You should weight the various factors concerning location, academic fit ecclesial affiliation, but also financial matters with this in mind: no matter where you go, the prospects of getting into a PhD program are slim and the prospects of getting a job on the other side slimmer. This is good advice, but I'd question a little how much less Duke is concerned with pastoral formation here (as an outsider here so likely to be wrong). A large part of their theological identity in recent decades has been an emphasis on the church and its practices as the context for theological discourse. I also would put money on them being the most pastorally focused divinity school, but I could be wrong here; at the end of the day they're still a United Methodist seminary with a considerable investment to this mission and identity in addition to being part of R1 Duke University.

I'd be very surprised if there was a stark difference. It would vary by professor more than school in my guess. If the funding is significantly better at Duke as you say then I'd go there, depending on your interests

It a good seminary in my understanding, and you'll likely get a good education depending on what you want (that is, they're probably gonna be focused on Christian theology and biblical studies), but is not known as a feeder school into PhD programs. It would be a good option if you're not committed to doing a PhD and want to stay in the area. But you may need to do a ThM or an STM at a bigger school down the road to make the leap to PhD. Does University of Pittsburgh have a program? I recall a recall professor from undergraduate having a PhD from there

If your goal is mainly to explore Hebrew and to see where that takes you, and if you want to do that in a religious context, you have a lot of options in DC. Look at Virginia Seminary, Wesley Seminary, Dominican House of Studies, or maybe CUA. Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond is another option. Each should be teaching at least introductory Hebrew and some exegesis classes, which you might want to audit if not enroll in a full degree program.

The common wisdom is that the quantitative portion is MUCH less important. I think as long as you didn't flat out fail you're alright, especially with verbal and writing scores like that

I tell people that the numbers are "necessary but not sufficient" to get in. All the numbers (i.e. generally 90% on verbal, 5 on writing, good GPA) do is get you past some initial cutoffs . From there its the pieces others have mentioned above: fit, recommendations, etc.

The general wisdom is that the MTS is better for academic prep (this is true), but if you scroll through the Ph.D. profiles at top schools you'll find that there's quite a few people with MDivs (especially if it's from someplace like HDS or YDS). So yes, an MTS will help you, but an MDiv isn't gonna keep you out. You should talk to someone who's a grad of HDS or someone from admissions about this, but my sense of HDS's MDiv is that it doesn't differ wildly in content from the MTS; even if they have some ministerial/pastoral classes you ought to take, you still would have a lot of freedom in course selection so that you can do more academic prep.

If you're in DFW then I imagine Perkins/SMU would be an option for you. I don't know what their HB/OT reputation is, but they're a strong divinity school. I can think of two folks who went to SBC seminaries and ended up in good PhD programs (one in OT as a matter of fact), but they both did masters at other schools. I want to gauge people's takes on this, but my perception for some reason is that SEBTS is considered the most moderate of the SBC seminaries; not that that quells the worry raised in this thread, but might help.

would be curious to get the perspective of a Duke student, but I applied to both and was told by a professor that it didn't matter; of course, this was just one professor's take.