<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>
<p>Thanks Ian. Your reply was helpful and informative. What about EC’s that are related to your intended major? eg. Medical Related Major----> Working at a hospital for cs?
That’s just an example.</p>
<p>Oh, yeesh, the OP understands very well that he is “white” by the federal rules. Please don’t confuse onlookers by guessing wrong what the federal rules on “race” categories are if you haven’t looked them up. See </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/772621-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-5-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/772621-race-college-admissions-faq-discussion-5-a.html</a> </p>
<p>for links to the official definitions. A white person from the country of South Africa is white, just as a white person from the country of New Zealand is white, and just as a white person from the country of Singapore is white. The definitions may be arbitrary, and my personal view is that we are all part of common humanity, but there shouldn’t be any confusion about the OP’s situation.</p>