If you first travel to Malaysia studying and have not friend then hostel best choice. In here have all you need such as a lot of people, friend, safe and in school you do not understood the lesson, you can ask people and them help you. Example: your dormitory near school, you not fee take bus, fee parking car, etc. Beside that some hostel free water, internet and you easy to find cafeteria. You do not need worried supermarket, restaurant and shopping because general always around you live.
However, you register dormitory then required you are following the rules. You cannot cook, do not drink alcohol and make party with friend; you cannot invite another friend from outside to your room. In addition when you are living with roommate bad, other cultural and language, you feel difficult make new friend. However when you cost money rental room month and if you payment slow it will be the big problem with management. You will allow dormitory not always good. Example: when I live here, I realized cut water not informed and it made my roommate angry because him taking a shower.
To sum up, I think living in hostel is better than living outside. However, hostel improves quality because they charge fee high but low quality. Therefore you live in the hostel for a long time and if you are not happy or you have a lot of friends and want to save money, you go outside and find for