Northwestern university, University of Illinois Chicago, and universities in downtown chicago?

It's about a 45-60 minutes train ride, the red line will make all stops to Howard then you'll have to transfer there to a purple line train to Linden and Northwestern is located at a few stops along the line, the Central stop is probably the best stop. If your going during rush hour then take the purple line from the loop and after the brown line splits after Belmont the purple line will run express to Howard. University Illinois Chicago isn't exactly downtown it's a little west of it, it's located near Halsted and the Eisenhower Expressway. The blue line has a stop called UIC-Halsted this is where it is located. It's not that bad of an area, the area on the west side starts getting bad the more west you go from Ashland which is another mile west of Halsted. Just keep in mind that the miles in Chicago are 8 blocks, State and Madison is 0 and everything from there is either N,S,E,W in Chicago, Halsted is 800 west, Ashland is 1600 west, Western is 2400 west and so on. That's telling you how many blocks you are from State Street and from Madison going the other direction. I'm not a real expert on universities or anything I just know where they are located and stuff like that. We don't have any trams here, just a good train and bus system, the L isn't hard to navigate either.

You need to go on each school's web site and read through it. You need to apply and be accepted in order to be able to enroll in classes. You need to be doing that now, if you plan on going to school next summer/fall. You are going to need to prove you can pay tuition and apply for a student visa. You may be required to live on campus if you are a freshman. Make sure you are checking out tuition and room and board costs. International student requirements, and how to apply will be on each school's web site.