Kuriakos

Baylor would not be a good fit for this sort of thing, nor does it belong in a list with a bunch of fundamentalist institutions

I'm sure you can find a nice maximalist option to suit you, but be warned that studying ANE context tends to not jive very well with the demands of theological conservatism.

An MTS is not going to be enough. For this kind of project you are going to need to be able to read Greek and Coptic at a minimum before even starting, but ideally also Latin and Syriac. You could probably acquire German and French during your PhD but you will have to learn them. If you apply to a department that has a traditional Biblical Studies background you will be expected to know Hebrew before beginning as well. The chances of you reaching satisfactory mastery in these languages in two years are extremely low. You will at least be in your 50s before you are ready and you will certainly face age discrimination as a result. You might be able to get an unfunded PhD at a decent school with bad funding like Rice but you will be in debt for the rest of your life. I'm not saying don't do it, but go into it with open eyes.

Lack of Hebrew may not matter in a state school "Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean" type program, but any school that still uses area titles like "New Testament" will expect you to have Hebrew. Some even specifically list Hebrew as a prerequisite and may pro forma reject your application when they realize you have not learned it. Frankly, it is silly as many NT people let their Hebrew get very rusty, but it is what it is.

They could all work (others have made these scenarios work). I would strongly suggest considering job placement in your calculus, and I'd ask for hard numbers from PoIs. Don't forget things like cost of living, too. People are often overly idealistic in making these choices, but you should really be brutal in your assessment of the financial benefits both during and after the program.

Interview weekend was last weekend. Typically Baylor notifies their chosen candidates fairly quickly after interview weekend and starts sending out wait list notifications around this time too.

Many schools offer dual degree programs like MDiv/MBA, MDiv/MSW, or MDiv/JD. These are often springboards for non-profit work and worth considering.

FWIW, Baylor is not conservative. Half the department faculty attend gay-affirming liberal churches. I'm about as liberal as it is possible to be and still retain the label Christian and I've had zero problems here. There's no inerrancy or heresy hunting or any of the bullshit you get in SBC schools.

I'm going to second the recommendation to look into UNC. I took seminars at UNC while I was at Duke and they were great.

When I was a ThM student at Duke, they encouraged people to apply to both. I did not because at that time the ThD stipend was far far lower than the PhD stipend. Not sure how it is today. I'd also say having a ThD instead of a PhD hurts your marketability when applying for jobs.

Your verbal score matters a lot more than your AWA. Retake it if you want, but I doubt it will be any sort of deal breaker.

I think the decision between Baylor/Marquette is basically a wash. It really depends on your area and who you might work with. If you want to do Second Temple Judaism, for example, get thee to Marquette! There are also peripheral financial considerations beyond stipend+tuition. What is the cost of living where you are going? What is travel support like? In both of those cases (and these are just two examples), Baylor is the hands down winner. Waco is much cheaper than Milwaukee and Baylor provides extremely generous travel support which I know far exceeds Marquette's (I roomed at SBL with a Marquette student). Then there are non-monetary consideration, too. Milwaukee is far more interesting than Waco. Milwaukee also offers more networking opportunities due to its easy access to Chicago (which has a lot of good networking events because there are a ton of decent religion programs there). Just try to consider multiple angles. If you tell me your specialty, I can say more.

Dr. Bingham is a solid dude and a fine scholar, but that doesn't change the fact that an SBC Seminary doctorate is the kiss of death for an academic career

A PhD from an SBC seminary is worthless. They have literally hundreds of doctoral students and they are inerrantist (i.e. require students and faculty to believe things that are factually untrue)

It's a good university in general. I imagine it depends on your specialty and who you'd work with whether it would be the best choice for you.