Objective To investigate the status of communication skills among medical students in order to provide targeted and operational interventions. Methods We designed the questionnaire ‘Questionnaire investigating the status of medical students’ communication skills’ to investigate the status of communication skills of medical students of the West China Clinical College. The sample was extracted by the way of stratified sampling. Results We put out 570 questionnaires and received 548 completed questionnaires. There was a statistical difference between students who came from the city and countryside in terms of communication skills. There was also a statistical difference between students with different backgrounds in communication skills. Conclusion ① Medical students have lots of advantages in interpersonal communication, but there are also lots of defects in their skill set. ② Medical students have been aware of the necessity of learning the basic theories of interpersonal communication to improve the physician-patient relationship in the future. ③ It has become a trend to carry out interpersonal education in medical universities. ④ Medical colleges need to integrate internal and external resources, professional education, moral education, and the construction of campus culture to foster medical students with good interpersonal skills.