Frustrated with the wait to start at the Naval Academy, in 1900 McNair applied for admission to the United States Military Academy.
Several of McNair's classmates also went on to prominent careers in the Army, including: George R. Allin; Charles School Blakely; Robert M. Danford; Pelham D. Glassford; Edmund L. Gruber; Henry Conger Pratt; Henry J. Reilly; Joseph Stilwell; and Innis P. Swift.