As an aside, I agree Scripps does NOT have a name recognition problem, not among people who matter. But if you didn’t like it, that is fine. There are other women’s LACs in consortiums you could consider instead, like Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke.
Generally, I do think the LAC path may be your best bet, notwithstanding not getting admitted to Barnard. That is because I feel like with your GPA and STEM history, you need a college to accept you followed an indirect path to this point, and I feel like an LAC is most likely to think about you in that way.
So I agree with the suggestion of looking seriously at Macalester. I’d also recommend you consider Oberlin. I note both of these colleges made Foreign Policy’s list of Top 50 undergraduate institutions for International Relations:
So did all of Claremont McKenna, Wellesley, and Tufts, and also Georgetown (but not Rice or Northwestern). But those coastal schools are tough admits, even ED, as you just found out with Barnard. Macalester and Oberlin just get fewer ED applications, not being on a coast, which helps lead to a higher ED admit rate.
Like, in their last available CDS, contrast:
Wellesley 887 ED applications, 259 ED admits, (29.2% ED admit rate)
CMC 742 ED applications, 219 admits (29.5% ED admit rate)
With:
Oberlin 588 ED applications, 260 admits (44.2%)
Macalester 335 ED applications, 177 admits (52.8%)
I don’t really believe in an ED boost as a universal concept. But in a case like yours, where you really need one of these colleges to see you as an individual with an unconventional but ultimately successful academic path, perhaps ED at a place which does not get too many ED applications is not a bad idea.