<p>I am an ex-South African living in California. I’m familiar with both the SA and the US systems of grades. In general 80% plus is/was regarded as an A grade in South Africa. More informative, for the US colleges, would be your class ranking, US SAT scores, the TOEFL and your grades for the last four years of high school. Your race, geographic and ethnic origin play a relatively minor part in acceptance compared to SAT scores. You will also need to write at least two SAT 2 exams. These are in specific subjects e.g. American History, English, Math etc. I would recommend that you go to Amazon.com and buy some instructional books to prepare for the SAT and the SAT 2s.
If you score very high on the SAT and SAT 2s then your chances of getting in will be MUCH higher.
BTW my daughter, who was born in South Africa, checked off the “Caucasian” box on her forms.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask more questions.
Ian</p>