Asking professors for syllabi?

Hi, I’m a recent high school graduate who will be starting school at William and Mary in a month and a half. W&M doesn’t let freshmen sign up for classes until orientation, but I suspect my first semester course load will be very reading-heavy, as I’m interested in English, philosophy, and Latin. I’ve heard of people emailing professors to ask for syllabi so they could get ahead on reading, but I’m worried because 1. I’ve never interacted with a professor before and don’t want to make a bad imprrssion and 2. I’d have to ask when I’m not even sure I’ll be able to take their class. Is this a good idea? If I do email them, how to I state my request politely and appropriately? Thank you to anyone who has anything to add.

Wait till you have attended orientation and registered for classes. Asking prior to that doesn’t make sense since you don’t know what your final schedule is going to look like. Usually you get the syllabus the first day of class. Once you are registered for your classes you can order the books and start reading on your own but don’t contact faculty till you have registered for classes.

Okay, thank you.

@aveimperator If you have any concerns consider posting in the W&M forum.

Moved to W&M forum.

You can certainly do that. I have certainly asked professors for syllabi before I took their class to get a good feel for it and see if it is a good fit. Different professors may vary, but most have been fine with it. You can say something like, “Hey I am an incoming freshman and I was planning out my courseload for next year and I am really interested in your class. Do you think you could send me the syllabus so I can get a feel of what the course is like and the readings we will be doing in the course?” Just know that you may not get the courses you want and so it might change anyway, but there is no harm in asking.

Also professors will give you their syllabi on the first day of classes, so you can decide from there and you have all of add/drop period to decide if you want to take a different course. So you don’t have to ask your professors now. There’s also nothing wrong with taking a lighter courseload during your first semester, and then taking more credits as you move forward in your W&M career.

Best of luck.