One of my roommates went to Stanford. Living in the Bay Area you end up knowing quite a lot of people who went to Stanford. If I were living in Seattle I would end up knowing a hundred people who went to UW. It's a weird thing after being from the Northwest because from my experience, although I think we have good public education options, our outlook on higher education and college is bit more... dare I say... casual? We want the best education, but it's not like we have the past four generations breathing down our throat to go to an Ivy League school, because that's what they did.
And really, that's just a lot of the west coast thinking. It's all a bit more casual. Anyway, because my roommate when to Stanford he gets the Alumni magazine every month. This thing is packed of awesome articles. They are interesting, and insightful, and even sometimes challenge their school for more answers. It seems like a nice magazine of actual journalism. My Alumni magazine I get every month is a quarter of the size, and mainly all light feature articles. Granted I know my University is probably an eighth of the size of Stanford, but still!