The experiences medical students pursue outside of their required coursework play a crucial role in shaping the kind of physician they will ultimately become.
A recent survey of graduating medical students reveals the elective and volunteer activities students engage in most. Which experiences top the list and how might they impact a medical student’s residency application?
Research is a medical student focal point
As part of the 2025 Medical School Graduation Questionnaire—an annual survey conducted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)—respondents were asked to list volunteer or elective (for credit) activities in which they participated. Medical students could select multiple activities in their responses.
The most common activity reported by graduating students was working on a research project with a faculty member (86.3%), ranking No. 1 overall from a list of 17 choices. Close behind are other research deliverables: sole or joint authorship of a peer-reviewed oral presentation or poster presentation (72.7%, No. 5) and sole or joint authorship of a peer-revied paper submitted for publication (67.1%, No. 7).
Even independent study projects (53.0%, No. 9), frequently a block of time medical students dedicate to scholarly work, sit firmly in the middle of the pack of electives and volunteer activities. A smaller share of respondents—40%, making it the 11th common elective or volunteer experience—indicated that they participated in community-based research projects.
While participation rates for most experiences and extracurricular activities among medical students have remained steady over the past five graduating classes, involvement in peer-reviewed research activities has shown a clear and consistent increase each year from 2021 to 2025.
Specifically, the percentage of medical students credited as authors on peer-reviewed articles rose from 61.2% in 2021 to 67.1% in 2025. Similarly, participation in peer-reviewed presentations and posters increased from 64.3% in 2021 to 72.7% in 2025.
Medical student research production has been on the rise since Step 1 of the USMLE exam went pass-fail in January 2022. For future residency applicants, it’s worth noting that the value placed on research is both specialty and program dependent.
Health disparities and patient care
Medical students went to great lengths to sharpen their skills related to patient care and communication.
Survey respondents reported high participation in learning proper use of medical interpreters (85.2%, making it the second most popular elective or volunteer activity in which medical students participated), experiences related to health disparities (84%, No. 3) and experiences related to cultural awareness and competence (77.9%, No. 4).
Working in a free clinic that treats an underserved population also ranked among the most common experience types (68.6%, No. 6). Impressively, nearly a quarter of responding medical students (23.7%) indicated they worked to learn another language to improve patient communication.
In a separate question on the survey, medical students were given the prompt “my knowledge or opinion was influenced or changed by becoming more aware of the perspectives of individuals from different backgrounds." More than 90% of respondents indicated they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, further shedding light on the value of cultural competency in one’s growth as a future physician.
Public health and education
Volunteer experiences and extracurriculars related to education and public health sat toward the middle of the list of those in which students participated. The most popular activity in this bucket was providing health education (57.4%, making it the eighth most common elective or volunteer experience) on topics such as HIV or AIDS, breast cancer awareness, smoking cessation and obesity.
About half of respondents also said they educated elementary, high school or college students about careers in health professions or biological sciences (50.8%, No. 10), while a smaller amount provided health education in their community with organizations such as child protective services and rape crisis hotlines (34%, No. 12).
Experiences in which students engaged in care outside of the clinical setting were less common—19% of graduating students participated in home care experiences, 16.2% had experience in nursing home care and 13.6 % participated in a global health experience.
In a separate question on the survey, 47.9% of medical students said they had clinical training experience at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility.
What it means for Matching
In a 2024 survey of residency program directors, 61% of respondents said that a student’s extracurricular activities were a factor considered in determining which residency applicants to interview.
While extracurricular activities and involvement are noted by many program directors, their influence is modest compared to other application components; 16 other factors were mentioned as more frequently considered during interview selection. Leading criteria such as a passing score on the Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (cited by 90% of respondents), an applicant’s USMLE Step 2 score (83%) and letters of recommendation in a specialty (84%) and the contents of an applicant’s statement (81%) hold much greater weight in the decision-making process.
That said, a student’s volunteer and elective activities can have sway in other key arenas such as a personal statement (cited as a factor in interview invites by 81% of responding PDs), perceived commitment to a specialty (72%) and leadership qualities (72%).
What you did outside the clinical arena as a medical student as a key part of your journey in medicine. As a residency applicant, the activities that were most meaningful to you—highlighted in both one’s personal statement and your application’s "Experiences” section—are most likely to resonate with others.
The experiences you highlight “should be meaningful to you, not what you think will be meaningful to someone else,” said John Andrews, MD, the AMA’s vice president for medical education and professional development.
“You pick the experience based upon how great a contribution it’s made to shaping your motivations and the reasons that you’re doing what you’re doing,” said Dr. Andrews, who served as a GME faculty member, pediatric residency program director, and associate dean for graduate medical education prior to joining the AMA.
