<p>benny1, foreign students are not expected to be as proficient in English as native speakers; they are that proficient, presumably, in their native language. Getting mediocre scores on SAT for people who did not have instruction in English is a <em>huge</em> success and a good predictor of the person’s capacity to master new skills, especially linguistic - most admitted foreign students have taken TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language), which is much easier than SAT.</p>