<p>bump10char</p>
<p>Sure, if you’re writing about what made you interested in a school. I talked about Randy Pausch and specific programs and majors in my why Carnegie Mellon essay.</p>
<p>It’s probably not a good idea to say that you’d like to have a specific person as a professor or anything like that though.</p>
<p>You can mention specific names, but they should be in the context of answering the essay prompt, e.g. “I read a paper by Prof Y on this subject and this caused me to get interested in (subject) etc. etc”. Mentioning names can show that the student has reserached the college and knows about the bent of the college, but you have to be careful it does not become name dropping. “I want to study physics at X university as Prof Y won the noble prize” will not cut it.</p>