As a student going abroad to London, i will be spending around 3 and a half months there. I would like to know what would be the cheapest and most efficient form of travel to get around the London area. I also would like to know what would be the cheapest way of eating in and around london as well. If there are any places that give student discounts? and does anyone know if it would be easier to get my money transferred in the United States or would it be cheaper to get it transferred in the United Kingdom?

You need to follow the search links on oyster cards for travel within London.
University may have cheaper college type food for basic nutrition other than that you are on your own with the rest of us. Cheapest food will nearly always be vegitarian and luckily there are a good range of such things along with the Internatiional-Brand-stuff. There will be discounts but yu need to be clear which college and where your accomadation will be to ge the best advice

Money transfer, what this. ATMS will give you the basic access to US bank accounts for day to day stuff. other than that you need to drop an email to the burser of your college and talk to your US bank to ensure best transfers.

You can search transfer on this site if you like. Generally I deal with commercial banking and find that while UK banks tend to think internationally some US banks find abroad a bit of a bore and charge accordingly. hence if your bank is say "first bank of minesota" (I assume a made up name) then it will transfer through citibank and then say to Barclays (two transfer means you can get hit by two sets of costs)

Have fun in London, it is a big city, which college have you got into?

I did a whole year abroad in London, eons ago. Is there a contact person in London from you home college to help arrange things?

As a student, you should qualify for student rates for monthly pass for transport. Go to tfl's website and look it up.

If you're staying at a dorm, the cheapest would be cooking yourself. Back then, the pound was at $2, so I couldn't even afford to buy meat from the supermarket. I was pretty much a vegetarian for the whole year. There are, however, plenty of cheap all-you-can-eat lunch buffets all over the city, esp Chinese or Indian or Pizza places. I'm sure your fellow students will direct you to these places.

Definitely shop at a grocery and fix meals yourself, if you can -- if you want to save money, eating out should be an occasional treat, not something you do every day.

You might find some useful links and advice on this website, which is about budget travel in London, especially for academics on research trips:
http://victorianresearch.org/trip.html

One would think you will get all the information you will need from fellow students once there.