Reaching out to POI's for Stanford CS program?

[Garen-Q]

Hey there, this is my first post at thegradcafe.

I'm currently three months out of school in industry doing software engineering and want to go back to school to pursue a PhD for some intellectual challenge (as opposed to just coding things that work).  Since I'm based in Palo Alto, Stanford is naturally my top choice for the PhD program, and I'm into some interdisciplinary projects in SDSI (Stanford Data Sci Initiative).

Since I have little experience with grad school application, I'm not sure about what I should do as my next step -- should I email professors to show my interests in their research, and would it help? I noticed that some professors put things like "Stanford grad admissions handle applications not individual faculties" and "unfortunately we cannot provide guidance on individual PhD applications," so I'm a bit hesitant. Also, if emailing POI's could potentially help, what should I say in the email?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, and sorry about my possibly dumb questions...

[Edotdl]

Cold emailing Stanford CS professors will most likely not be that helpful. However, if you know someone that could refer you, you could try that. In terms of next step, if you want to get a PhD, I'd start looking a programs you want to apply to and start preparing your application for this cycle.