Do colleges expect international students to score as well as US-students in the SAT I? I’m just wondering because for me, as I’m German, the SAT Reading and Writing sections are way harder as for native speakers (I guess)…
Yes they do. In fact, since the admissions rate for international students is much lower than their overall admit rate, the reality is that in most cases, their test scores are better. One does not get leeway solely because one’s naïve language is not English. Since the language of instruction is English, colleges have the expectation that all students admitted will be able to hit the ground running.
You could also try the ACT - it’s easier for most non-native English speakers.
(Let’s say you get the same score as a US student, I assume it’d be slightly more impressive because it’s not your native language.)
You’d assume incorrectly. Since the language of instruction is English, an applicant does not get a pass for not having English as a first language.
I’m sure colleges do recognize that it’s harder for non-native internationals to score high on the sat.
I just thought (hoped) that colleges might give me a little discount for not being native. 
The way admissions officers interpret the standardized test scores of international students varies from one university to another.
There are definitely some admissions offices that will cut an international student some slack on standardized tests, especially if the rest of the application is very strong, the university does not have need-blind admissions for international students, and the student is not requesting financial aid.
This way the university gets a full-paying student who is also strong academically.
On the other hand, the standards for international students requesting financial aid, or for international students at need-blind universities, are higher than the standards for US citizens. US universities all receive funding either directly or indirectly from the tax dollars of US citizens. That is why very, very little financial aid is given to foreign nationals.
Non-native speakers of English are required to submit TOEFL/IELTs scores precisely to demonstrate that these students are able to handle college-level English even if their SAT/ACT scores are comparatively low.
Some universities even WAIVE the SAT/ACT requirement only for international students, because these universities know that the scores have a different meaning for non-native speakers of English.
Thus the answer to the question “is it ok if I, as an international student, score lower on the SAT?” is: it depends.
It depends. For top 25 universities, not really. You’d have to offset a low-ish CR score with 3-4 700+ SAT Subjects, for instance.
At many other universities though, yes you have a bit of leeway.
In addition, the SAT questions are worded in a very tricky way, whereas the ACT is more straightforward, although it requires greater speed and tests more subjects and skills. Therefore, for students (especially those from European systems) the ACT is a better choice.
Anyway, Plotinus is right: it depends.
What universities are you thinking of?
IDK, I think it is really hard to generalize, even among top 25 universities.
I have concrete examples of unhooked international students who got into top 25 universities with lowish SAT scores, but they applied ED and did not apply for financial aid.
Also, most of the European students I know like the (old) SAT better than the ACT. They hate speed tests. They do not study statistics at school. They don’t do graphs in science class. They are fantastic in grammar. They know Latin and can guess the meanings of words of Latin etymology. They read difficult classic texts in school. The ACT is not given every testing date in their cities. They don’t like the ACT at all. I think there are too many variables to generalize.