Quandry,
You obviously don't know anything about Stanford then. I lived in Escondido Village for 4 years (student housing area if you didn't know). I am friends with tons of former Stanford students and met tons while there. There isn't one student there that I met who came from an affluent background. In fact, on the whole, the background of those students was more lower class than my very middle class upbringing. These people were the sons and daughters of truck drivers, coal miners, small retail shop owners, mechanics, service people. One woman's dad was a Clown for a living.
I met way more affluent students in undergraduate school than I did at Stanford.
As far as real-world experience goes, you're right, they don't have it, but neither do most college students anywhere else. It is absolutely wrong for example to say that the affluent students go to Stanford and the poor ones go to San Jose State. That might be the case AFTER school is over, but not before or during. It is true to say though that the talented students go to Stanford and the not-so-talented ones go to San Jose State (or many other state schools). Why bust on those Stanford students because they worked hard for grades while in high school? That should be the No. 1 priority of a high school student. Getting a good education is their job then.
Not sure why you mentioned East Palo Alto. The place is a piss hole, and no one is proud of that place.
As far as the subway goes, I used to take the Metro (subway system in Washington, DC) in to work every day (post Stanford time), and so did many other highly paid professionals.
Money is not what matters to me and to many others who make it (not saying that I am or am not making tons of money). What matters is the accomplishments, and money just comes along with it.
Stanford graduates are talented and accomplished, and with that comes money if they so choose. The money is always secondary to most who make it.