Profile evaluation! Mediocre Undergrad grades + age gap disadvantage + very little research experience

[ssk997]

Hi GradCafe regulars! 
Crossposting from the Q&A sub.

Its my first time posting on this forum. I heard of this place through my PhD application research and wanted to get some advice from some of the more qualified people here. I really want to know what users here who already got PhD admits in their desired schools and their safe schools this year feel about my chances. I know this question is probably asked a lot here but I hope you guys'll be patient with me, and please let me know if there is a better sub to ask this question on this forum. That being said, i'll keep it short: 

Degree	GPA	Notes
Mechanical Bachelors+ Master's dual degree	approx 2.9 out of 4 [my school grades on %]	finished this 5 year program in 6 years due to my final thesis getting extended, retook 3 course final exams. Had 4 C's and D's. Swedish Higher Education doesn't grade students on a GPA scale. Their grades range from Excellent(A) to Sufficient (E)
Information System Master's	3.67 out of 4	US based masters, all A's

 

Research Experience	Duration	Location	Notes
Mechanical Independent Master's thesis	1 year	research conducted in a military lab + university lab	graded, finished thesis as sole author, published in Swedish universities-only academic online journal
Mechanical Bachelors's thesis	6 months	university lab	graded, not published
Mechanical Bachelor's summer Research Project	4 months	university lab	graded, not published
Information systems Master's Summer Research Project	3 months	university lab	graded, not published

GRE - 320 (quant 166, verbal 154, AWA 4)

My target universities are: U. of Vermont, U. of Maine, U. of Rhode Island, Rochester Institute of Tech, CCNY, Boston U, USF Tampa, Florida International U, Florida State U, UT Arlington, UNCC, NCSU, U of Arizona, Cleveland State U., U of Wisconsin Madison, Washington U St. Louis.

My target programs: Mechanical, Industrial, Sustainable

My age: 31

LOR's: on a scale of 1 to 10? 6.5. Written by 3 professors from my second master's. My first master's and thesis were 7 years ago so I can't contact them for LOR's. 

Notes: I went into full time work for 3 years in the IT sector before getting into second master's program. Worked for 2 more years after. 

 
1) Are my universities too ambitious? Should I go lower to get into a fully-funded program? 

2) Should I instead go for a PhD related to my second master's because I have better GPA in that one? 

3) I have seen in almost all PhD admit profiles that they come from tier 1 universities back in their home country. All my universities (home+US) are tier 2. So should instead apply for tier 3 universities? 

So far I have mailed probably 80 professors across 10 universities and I expect to email 100 more. But the response rate so far has been 5 out of 80.

Please add any more thoughts you have that are relevant to my profile.