Hi everyone, glad to be playing the post-application waiting game with you!
Some background info: I applied to a doctoral program where the research fit was close but not perfect. The program is in the education field, so the research fit doesn't seem to be as critical as it is in certain STEM fields. Knowing this, I talked with a potential adviser and stated my research interests pretty broadly so that our interests were loosely but logically related. She was enthusiastic and I ended up listing her as a potential adviser in my personal statement.
Herein lies my dilemma: In an email inviting me to interview, the department introduced a new faculty member whose research interests perfectly match my own! The email directed students interested in working with him to his email address. The new prof won't be in town during the interview so I won't be able to speak with him in person, but how should I go about navigating the sudden shift in potential advisers I'm interested in working with? Is there anything I should add to the [roughly written] general outline below? Thanks for all your help!
"Dear first adviser, I'm thrilled about University of X's program and believe your work is making important contributions to the field. However, with the introduction of new faculty member's work, I believe his research project on specific topic would be a wonderful extension of my previous research and a more specific route to explore broad topic. I've emailed him and look forward to working with both of you in some capacity in the future."