Should you email a professor before writing a Why Us essay?

RReaders in Stanford's admissions office rated one kind of Why Us answer above all the others, and very few applicants write it. Most Why Us essays are built on intentions: a program the student admires, a tour she enjoyed, a promise to take advantage of everything the college offers. Readers have seen thousands of them, and they pass without leaving a mark. The answer that office prized was different in kind, because it rested on something the applicant had already done rather than something she hoped to do, and written well it was almost always among the strongest responses in the stack. It is open to any student willing to start early enough, which is exactly why most never do.