Hi - my son is a current 4th form boarding student at Hill and I am happy to answer your questions.
Social - don’t let the more formal dress code fool you, my son’s friends are very friendly, goofy at times etc. While there is academic pressure, my son and his friends don’t let it overly stress them. I am sure there are some friend groups which may be more the “stress” type but my son has found plenty of like minded peers.
Academic - my son is in many study groups and they are not competitive with each other, they really want all their friends to do well. Again, there may be more competitive groups be he isn’t part of them.
Free time/flexibility - the students get more “freedoms” as they get into higher forms. As a fourth form, he said he goes into town with his friends and while they need to “check in” at predetermined times or sometimes use the app to notify when they are “off campus” - he says it’s not a big deal. (he didn’t go into town much last year as a 3rd form but I think that was more due to COVID rules rather than school policies) From what I have heard about some other schools, it may be a little more “strict” but not necessarily in what is allowed, just their willingness to enforce consequences for breaking the rules - the rules are clear, students are expected to abide by them, and if they don’t there are appropriate consequences (and this is about the serious rules which are there for student safety, not things like dress code… ). My son has not found them stifling, but maybe he will as he gets older?
My son has not chosen to participate in engineering so I can’t comment and I don’t think? he has utilized the writing center (yet?) as he feels he has gotten plenty of excellent guidance from his English and History teachers.
Overall, my son has been very happy at Hill - he is challenged academically but not overly stressed, he has made wonderful/close friendships and he really enjoys all of the traditions etc. The best thing I have found is how inspired he has been by all of his teachers. He works hard on his academics because he WANTS to, not because he is trying for a certain grade and he speaks very highly about all of his teachers.
Feel free to PM me if you want.