You should consider adding VT to your list of MA programs. I'm a second year student there now, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. In regards to funding, every person in the program this year is fully funded (tuition plus stipend), and last year all but two students received full funding. I believe we do require the GRE, but I may be wrong. It certainly isn't the most important aspect of the application, but it may be required by the Graduate School.
As for where you should go for a Masters. As much as it shouldn't be this way, PhD programs do care about the strength of the program you came from. Given that your interests may change, so you can't really say for certain where you want to go for a PhD, I definitely recommend trying to get into the best MA program possible. Coming from a continental undergrad university and being at a highly analytic program now, I feel like it is easier to go from an analytic school to a continental school than vice versa, so if you aren't entirely sure or want to do a combination of both, I recommend going to a strong analytic program.
Best of luck!