<p>The need blind-schools I'm talking about are HYPM, middlebury, williams, and amherst. I know that those schools are need-blind, but does applying early actually hurt your chances for receiving a potentially significant FA?</p>
<p>just speculating here, but I don't think it affects the amount of aid you receive but it may affect the *composition<a href="grants,%20loans,%20work-study,%20etc">/i</a>. A school has its methodology of calculating "need" and I think the amount will be the same whether you apply ED or not. </p>
<p>While all colleges publicly deplore bargaining over financial aid and many claim they will never do it, the fact is you can find examples on this forum of people who have called school A and said "B offers this amount" or "B only requires a loan of this amount" and had school A match the other offer(s). When you apply ED you are required to withdraw all other apps so you'll never find out what other schools amounts and packages would have looked like. The ED school knows this and as long as they're meeting your need amount they can fill it any way they choose (in other words, more loans and work-study).</p>