Unfortunately, as an international student seeking matriculation at a university or college in the United States, your daughter will encounter a lot of hurdles. Since you are targeting schools with NCAA fencing programs, the first obstacle to recruitment is your daughter’s ranking. Top 16 at the junior level in an “East Asian” country is not particularly significant in pursuit of an NCAA recruiting slot. If the country is Japan, South Korea, or China, that’s better (also depending on the weapon), but it is still a very minimal level of competitive ranking. This is compounded by your daughter’s total lack of competition and results in the United States. When you add to this that her academics are below average, and that she does not have the basic test scores required for admission, I think her chances of recruitment are very low. Certainly, standardized demonstration of fluency in English is a major criterion for recruitment.
The list provided by Trudy is a useful reference, but I doubt that most of these schools will recruit your daughter. This does not stop her from gaining admission based on other factors and walking-on to the team, but I doubt admission will be offered based on her fencing or, quite frankly, based on her academics. My personal recommendation would be a school such as Incarnate Word which is a much less competitive fencing program, lower academic standards, and has recruited international fencers previously. While programs at Penn State, Ohio State, and at St. John’s regularly recruit international fencers, I think that only St. John’s provides any shot at admissions. The program often struggles to fill its rosters and regularly recruits international fencers. I think the standards at all of the other schools are too high, although I might take a run at Sacred Heart in Connecticut. I don’t think there is any headway to be made below DV1.
As for timing, schools do not track the fencer’s age, but rather their graduation year from high school. Considering the holes in your daughter’s potential recruitment CV, an additional year for her to improve academics, her fencing (including competition in the United States!), and to gain appropriate standardized test scores may be helpful to achieving her goals.
Best of luck and please keep us all informed of your daughter’s progress.