This article explores the relationship between undergraduate students’ class‐based cultural capital and their facility in developing relationships with faculty. Based on in‐depth interviews with 44 students at an elite university, this study reveals that lower‐ and middle‐class students tended to inadvertently opt out of this key relational opportunity. Compared with upper‐class students, who predominantly reported an “appreciative ease” orientation toward faculty, students from lower‐class origins tended to approach faculty with “hesitant appreciation” and middle‐class students with “critical suspicion.” These orientations or interaction styles of nonelite students were obstacles to the potential benefits of student–faculty relationships. These findings suggest that scholars and policy makers should pay attention not only to the experiences of lower‐class students, but also to the challenges confronting middle‐class students at highly selective universities.