Chicago is situated in north-eastern Illinois on the south-western shores of Lake Michigan. It is the important city in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, arranged in the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes district. Chicago lays on a mainland isolate at the site of the Chicago Portage, interfacing the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds. The city lies next to colossal freshwater Lake Michigan, and two waterways—the Chicago River in downtown and the Calumet River in the mechanical far South Side—stream totally or halfway through Chicago. Chicago's history and economy are firmly fixing to its closeness to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River verifiably dealt with a great part of the locale's waterborne payload, the present enormous lake vessels utilize the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake likewise gives another beneficial outcome, directing Chicago's atmosphere; making waterfront neighborhoods somewhat hotter in winter and cooler in summer.

 Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the overseeing body of the school region that contains more than 600 open rudimentary and secondary schools citywide, including a few particular confirmation magnet schools. There are eleven specific enrolment secondary schools in the Chicago Public Schools, intended to address the issues of Chicago's most scholastically propelled understudies. These schools offer a rigorous curriculum with mainly honours and Advanced Placement (AP) courses. North-side College Preparatory High School is ranked number one in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Walter Payton College Prep High School is ranked second, Jones College Prep is third, and the oldest magnet school in the city, Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, which was opened in 1975, is ranked fourth The magnet school with the largest enrolment is Lane Technical College Prep High School.^[ Lane is one of the oldest schools in Chicago and in 2012 was designated a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

Since the 1850s, Chicago has been a world focal point of advanced education and research with a few colleges that are in the city appropriate or in the prompt environs. These foundations reliably rank among the best "National Universities" in the United States, as dictated by U.S. News and World Report.Top universities in Chicago are: the University of Chicago; Illinois Institute of Technology; North-western University; Loyola University Chicago; DePaul University; Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois at Chicago. Other notable schools include: Chicago State University; the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago; East–West University; National Louis University; North Park University; North-eastern Illinois University; Robert Morris University Illinois; Roosevelt University; Saint Xavier University; Rush University; and Shimer College.^[

William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago, was instrumental in the creation of the junior college concept, establishing nearby Joliet Junior College as the first in the nation in 1901.^[ His legacy continues with the multiple community colleges in the Chicago proper, including the seven City Colleges of Chicago: Richard J. Daley College, Kennedy–King College, Malcolm X College, Olive–Harvey College, Truman College, Harold Washington College and Wilbur Wright College, in addition to the privately held MacCormac College.

Chicago also has a high concentration of post-baccalaureate institutions, graduate schools, seminaries, and theological schools, such as the Adler School of Professional Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, the Erikson Institute, The Institute for Clinical Social Work, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the Catholic Theological Union, the Moody Bible Institute, the John Marshall Law School and the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Reputed Scientists from City

1.       Robert McCormick Adams

2.       Warder Clyde Allee

3.       Zonia Baber 

4.       Ralph Buchsbaum

5.       Albert Chan 

6.       Jane C. Charlton

7.       Luis Alvarez

8.       Emily Green Balch

9.       Gary Becker

10.   Saul Bellow 

11.   John Maxwell Coetzee

12.   James Cronin

13.   Robert Millikan 

14.   Paul Samuelson

15.   Jack Steinberger

Tourist attraction

In 2014, Chicago pulled in 50.17 million household recreation voyagers, 11.09 million residential business explorers and 1.308 million abroad guests. These guests contributed more than US$13.7 billion to Chicago's economy. Upscale shopping along the Magnificent Mile and State Street, a great many eateries, and also Chicago's prominent design, keep on drawing travelers. The city is the United States' third-biggest tradition goal. A recent report by Walk Score positioned Chicago the fourth-most walkable of fifty biggest urban communities in the United States. Most traditions are held at McCormick Place, only south of Soldier Field. The notable Chicago Cultural Center (1897), initially filling in as the Chicago Public Library, now houses the city's Visitor Information Center, displays and show corridors. The roof of its Preston Bradley Hall incorporates a 38-foot (12 m) Tiffany glass arch. Give Park holds Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain (1927), and the Art Institute of Chicago. The recreation center likewise has the yearly Taste of Chicago celebration. In Millennium Park, there is the intelligent Cloud Gate form. Cloud Gate, an open figure by Indian-conceived British craftsman Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. Likewise, an open air eatery changes into an ice arena in the winter season. Two tall glass figures make up the Crown Fountain. The wellspring's two towers show visual impacts from LED pictures of Chicagoans' countenances, alongside water gushing from their lips. Straightforward Gehry's point by point, stainless steel band shell, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, has the traditional Grant Park Music Festivalconcert arrangement. Behind the structure's stage is the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, an indoor setting for fair sized performing expressions organizations, including the Chicago Opera Theater and Music of the Baroque.

Transportation

Chicago, Illinois is the third-biggest city in the United States and a noteworthy transportation center point for the Midwest. The city is served by two noteworthy air terminals, and is the principle cargo rail center of North America.

Mass travel in a great part of the Chicago metropolitan zone is overseen through the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), which was introduced by submission in 1974. The RTA gives transportation benefits through the financing of three subordinate offices: the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra, and Pace.