Hi,
I'm also having the same dilemmas and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one! There really doesn't seem to be a lot of easily accessible advice, which has been frustrating to me.
Here are my current thoughts, so take what you will from them:
With my interest in curation, I have decided that some type of public history MA makes the best sense at the moment because I can gain practical skills for a first job and then have an academic side which may eventually lead to a PHD. There are also a lot of History MA programs with public history concentrations out there which I think are also a good medium.
I've decided that museum studies programs won't work for me because the focus is primarily practical. I think they probably work well for certain jobs within museums, and some programs are quite good, but if you want to have a more senior level historian position, you need more academic training. Someone also told me that practices change, but academic theory remains.
Overall, I think it really depends on the type of organization you want to work for. The smaller they are, I think the more open they are to different degrees, but larger institutions probably require more academic and specialized staff.
I would be interested in hearing anything more about what degrees or skills are most desired in curators. I have heard that it's good to be caught up on current trends (digitalization, for example), but does it matter if you've taken a course on it or not?
Also, if anyone has any recommendations for specific programs, or, perhaps more helpful, any programs that are not recommended!