What specific programs to mention in a Why Us essay

RReaders in Stanford's admissions office, the office we learned from, admitted that they knew their own university the way a tour guide does: the famous majors, the big centers, the traditions every visitor hears about. Families often assume the opposite, that the reader of a Why Us essay knows the college inside out, and so applicants write about the things they imagine an expert wants confirmed.

A large university runs thousands of courses and dozens of small institutes, and the reader holding the essay may never have heard of most of them. That gap changes what a single well-chosen sentence can do, for the applicant and, unexpectedly, for the reader too.