Post-Acceptance Visit: Individual Meetings With Faculty?

[cupparino]

Have a visit weekend coming up and was given the schedule. Have like 4 individual meetings with faculty, only one of which was a listed POI. What exactly are the expectations of these meetings? Should I assume that I was given these meetings because the program sees some parallel between that faculty and my own research? (I've checked and I don't see much alignment) Should I know these faculties work and background? 

[Phoenix88]

I just did two visits to schools myself, one pre-acceptance with a schedule like you had with a lot of people, and one post-acceptance where it was just me visiting some potential POIs. But in general, before going into interviews you should definitely know the faculty's background. 

If you were "assigned" interviews, they definitely saw some parallel between your interests and their work. However, there is only so much you can learn from their website or they can learn from your resume/CV, so it may be a better or worse match than anticipated. But one thing that was stressed at the first event I went to was that you are closing doors if you walk into interviews totally unprepared. One professor even said that that person should "get out of their office". Just skim their prior publications, take notes on the most interesting bits, and mention it during the interview. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes per person. Interviews do tend to go a lot smoother when you know these things, as they know that you actually care about the interview, and they don't have to repeat the basics of their research again.