@physman Without having a clue as to what your unweighted GPA is, no one can really hasten a guess at any potential U.S. schools. Another question that will be relevant; are you a U.S. Citizen living in the States?
I can tell you that Case Western, SMU and Baylor are definitely going to care about your GPA. Someone else will have to comment on Brandeis, but given what can be extrapolated from the common dataset, Brandeis will too: The average unweighted GPA of incoming Freshman is 3.83, only 3% have unweighted GPAs below a 3.0, 99% of admits are in the top 50% of their class with 91% in the top quarter.
Honestly, I’d take the advice that you’ve already gotten, remove “name brand” from focus, and look at schools that align with your style of learning, has research opportunities for undergrads, is in range academically, and will leave you with a lot of time for extracurriculars.
Some thoughts for undergrad-- It strikes me that you’ll perform better where you have a cohort that will keep you accountable. You might enjoy a one class at a time, collaborative environments, or schools that are more focused on learning-by-doing, with intimate, interactive groups.
The University of Denver comes to mind. They’re on the quarter system & approach classroom learning with small interactive groups, they offer and strongly encourage undergrad research (lots of opportunities and money earmarked for it), and if you need something that will register on the ‘Prestige Meter’, it’s a top 100 university. It would still be a reach, but perhaps a low reach, given that they’d be (very) impressed with your ECs and research skills, which are highly valued. They’re more likely to recognize a kindred spirit who’s been needing the type of learning environment that they foster to perform well in the classroom.