Forget about what your friends are saying. I was offered Electronic Engineering at UTHM, Johor. Rejected it to go to UTAR. Why? It was not the course that I applied for. Yes, people would say you should be grateful if you could get an offer from IPTA. But in between your own choice or a choice that is thrown to you; your own choice is what matter the most.

Of course UTeM is a whole lot cheaper than UTAR. But UTAR is a whole cheaper than any other private universities/colleges like Taylor, Help, Inti etc. Like everyone else has mentioned, UTAR uses either English or Mandarin. BM, forget about it. No restriction on clothes etiquette. T-shirt and jeans are enough. Very nice environment to study too (lake, hills etc.). Accommodations are much cheaper than KL so if you are from cities, you can survive at Kampar. Oh and unlike UM, there is no politicians in UTAR -- just saying.

Money won't be a problem if you could get PTPTN and know how to keep tabs of your budget. Most important is to study hard.