Do I need to graduate from my current degree in order to start my second degree?

[kalico726]

I'm sorry if this is a question with an obvious answer. I'm currently in undergrad for psychology and I haven't done very well because of external circumstances and mental health. I started out strong, but ended up doing poorly. I want to make it an honor's degree which will be at least another year (I did well enough to get in), but I also want to do a second degree to improve my chances at getting into medical school. Do I need to graduate from psychology first, or can I pick up a second major and stretch it out another 2 years to fulfill the 60 credit requirement for universities that only look at the last 2 years? I have a lot of withdrawals on my transcript and I feel like starting over fresh would improve my chances. But I also don't want to waste time. 

[bearded frog]

You'll have to look specifically at how each school considers "years" to see if you would qualify, each school has different criteria. The requirements change often enough that you should look directly at what each school has on their site and not what has been posted on here in the past.

[kalico726]

So far most of the universities I have looked at have said they count the "last 60 credits." That's pretty obvious right... the last 60 units of my degree. I did e-mail some universities and they told me as much, that they look at the last 60 credits regardless of the major (not just psychology then). I guess I'm still just worried my mistakes will have marred my transcript and that they will look at them regardless (the withdrawals and fails), and I wonder if they are less likely to "notice" or pay attention to them if I graduate and start over fresh? This seems like something that is a crapshoot and who the heck knows, but I thought I would ask anyways.

[NutritionRunner]

Late to reply, but regardless of whether you graduate or not, you’ll have to disclose ALL transcripts to medical schools, even those that only look at last two or best two years. So graduation doesn’t affect that. There’s no such thing as starting fresh, you have to provide all transcripts. If you don’t, and schools find out, your application will be thrown out, even for schools that don’t look at earlier degrees or courses. It’s about academic honesty. 

[kalico726]

I wasn't planning on not disclosing everything. But thank you for your response.