More of a LAC than Brandeis is pretty limiting because you are already talking about small to medium sized universities and you also have the Hillel requirement. Are you also crossing Emory, WashU, NYU, and others off of your list? Since the small LAC is higher on your list than Jewish presence, then you should work backwards and look at your LAC list and then discover how vibrant the Hillel center there is and also consider BDS presence if that makes you uncomfortable. I do think you should visit Emory for all of the reasons you mentioned.