One morning during winter break, as I was sitting on my couch with a mug of coffee in hand, I remember reveling to my mom: “It’s incredible how much majoring in anthropology kept on proving itself useful in medical school.  Who would have known?” In college, I chose to major in a social science, anthropology—surely the less traditional route for students interested in medicine—because I was drawn to the sheer diversity of research areas and the engaging, experience-based fieldwork methods.  Later, I happily discovered that studying anthropology was not only intellectually interesting and exciting but also practically useful in preparing for the MCAT—the CARS section is known to test critical reasoning skills on passages from science, social science, and the humanities, and analyzing plenty of Durkheim, Foucault, Marx, and Weber surely helped me tackle those potentially tough readings.  But how else has studying a social science helped me grow?  Below are 3 important skills in medicine that anthropology helped me hone before even beginning medical school:

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