Emailing after invited for an interview

[cha-cha]

Hi,

 

I've been invited to an visiting/interview weekend next week, and I was curious whether it would be appropriate to email the POIs beforehand. I never established any contact with the professors, I just wrote down their names in the application and in my SOP. But now that I know I'm going to have individual conversations with them, and since the school is one of my top choices, I want to make as good an impression as possible and raise the possibility of getting in. At the same time, I feel like it might not be necessary since I WILL be meeting with them anyways, and since the interview is meant to serve the purpose of getting to know them and them me. Also, I'm concerned that just saying hi over the email might sound superfluous/unnecessary, but also that asking too detailed questions about their research, etc. invalidates the purpose of having the interview weekend. So my two main questions would be...

 

1) Would it be appropriate to contact POIs before the interview weekend?

2) If yes, can it be fairly casual, just me saying hi and that I look forward to meeting you in person? Or should I express more solid interest in their research topic and start off a conversation on that direction?

 

My field is in the humanities but any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

[DaDocStruggle]

At this point I would not advise you to send an email to them. It would just seem unnecessary to them if they will be seeing you the following week. Many people begin to contact potential POIs early in the application process. I think it's best for you to just prepare and knock them dead come interview day. G luck!