<p>@the OP: How competitive are the students that are getting denied by Brown? Are we talking HYPS+Presidential scholars+International Physics Olympiad level or are they just going to other ivy league schools? If they are the former, than yes your situation is odd. However, if they are just getting into other schools around the competiveness of Brown than it’s probably just a conicidence. Admissions is weird. I’ve seen people on this forum that get into HYP and don’t get into Georgetown. However, if all schools more competitive than Brown are taking these students than I will agree that it is possible your school has sort of been “blacklistited.” Backing out of an ED agreement I hear is one of the things that really makes adcoms mad.</p>