Walmart heiress Alice Walton has opened a medical school in Arkansas that charges no tuition to its first five graduating classes.

The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine welcomed its first class of 48 students on July 14, 2025, in Bentonville. The students were selected from more than 2,200 applicants.

The school is built around a “whole health” approach. Alongside conventional medical training, the curriculum covers prevention, nutrition, mental health, lifestyle and the arts. The campus features healing gardens, rooftop parks and a wellness studio, with access to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which Walton also founded.

“By removing the burden of tuition for our first classes, we’re giving students the freedom to focus on their calling, not their debt,” Walton said at the opening ceremony.

The school aims to train physicians who will work in medically underserved areas. It is one of only a few new medical schools to open in the United States in recent years.