Requesting Interviewers - OK to Contact POIs Externally?

[Zedonger]

Hello fellow grad cafe friends,

Long-time lurker, first time poster. Thanks for all of the information you have let me mooch off your questions for so long.

I was recently invited to two on-campus Ph.D. interviews/recruitment weekends being held next month. On the RSVP paper there are spaces to request specific interviewers. I have requested a couple of POI's, but I am not sure how to proceed from here. Is it acceptable, or crossing some line to send these professors an email and check their schedule to see if they are making themselves available for this event - specifically meeting with me? I have not spoken with these professors previously, maybe I am behind the 8-ball already in that regard. Any advice about this particular point of the interviewing process would be appreciated!

[peachypie]

I wouldn't contact the PIs externally  I'd simply fill out the request and note who you are interested in meeting with.  Some of those people will be chosen and some will be random people.  Spoiler alert: you won't be meeting with solely people  you are interested in working with no matter what you say or do.  Just fill it out, as they asked, and see what comes up.