The melting pot view of ethnic assimilation suggests a direct relationship between ethnic assimilation and social class. The cultural pluralist orientation largely rejects such a hypothesis. Analysis of national (N= 1469) and New York (N= 1683) survey data shows that indicators of ethnic assimilation (interethnic marriage and friendship) and of social class are generally unrelated. However, associations in the hypothesized direction among the more recently arrived ethnic groups suggest social class (particularly education) is an important correlate of ethnic assimilation at earlier stages in the assimilation process.