How would one create a realistic magazine for a school project?

It's going to be difficult to achieve a professional-look on such a low budget, since the two major desktop publishing programs (Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress) sell for hundreds of dollars. As a student, you can buy InDesign for $200, but that's well over your budget. If you have PowerPoint, you might be able to make something, but it won't look like a "real" magazine. Glossy paper will be key to getting the effect you want. Make sure you use a high-resolution image for your cover photo so that it doesn't look pixelated. Other tips: Try to stay with just two fonts, and try to keep your color selection limited to three on a given page. You'll note that professional magazines never use too many fonts or colors on their covers.