I scraped a 3.0/4 GPA in my undergraduate degree because of some family and financial shit, we were homeless at one point. Thanks to some really flattering reference letters from sympathetic supervisors I got into a good masters program and I graduated from that with a perfect 4.0/4.

I haven't done the GRE or pGRE yet, I'm doing the pGRE this month, but based on practice papers I should do really well, probably full marks in the GRE and at least 95th+ percentile in the pGRE. I have no publicaions simply because of the nature of the projects I worked on, but I did contribute significantly to a prominent astrophysics experiment (Not gonna say which and dox myself) which my old supervisor has promised will be reflected in my letters of reference.

I've heard conflicting advice, some have said to me that AdComs will like that story of how I overcame adversity etc as it would make me stand out from the sea of nearly identical 4.0 GPA students applying and show that I have more than just academcs but """mental toguhness""" too, but others have said that if people with perfect academic records are being thrown out then I'll have no chance.

Be honest, do I have any hope for the Caltech/MIT(Or wherever you believe to be the best) tier astrophysics programs?