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!

Congrats to the CUNY admit and best of luck for the waitlisters! Does anyone mind sharing information about your concentration and/or the email you received? Was it an official email from the department? Was it implied that all notifications were out already? I'd appreciate any sort of input. Thanks!