From Brown’s website:
“ Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan.”
The ED admission rate is higher because most of the athletes are admitted ED and their acceptance rate is close to 100% because they’ve all completed academic pre-reads and have coach support. And there is an amount of self selecting which leads to a higher acceptance rate.
And there are some exceptions to the SCEA rules for applying to other private schools.