So this Gurby guy is just wrong and doing that like pompous thing ppl do on SDN to poo poo others' goals, just to boost their fragile egos by saying things like a "246 is average/below average." As ppl of science I can actually prove this guy wrong using a published article reviewing i6 programs from a few years back.
The article is called,
"Six-year integrated cardiothoracic surgery residency applicants: Characteristics, expectations, and concerns," it is free and accessible online.
Here is a quote from that article regarding step scores of 36/80 applicants who participated in the study, "The mean reported United States Medical Licensing Examination score was 235.7 +/-15.7 and 246.7 +/-19.5 for steps 1 and 2 CK (Clinical Knowledge), respectively." Now, the study doesn't state if these applicants matched i6, but there are some conclusions to be drawn...for almost half of the 80 total applicants the MEAN score was 235 and the highest score was about a 250, so even if programs only accepted the ~250s from the applicant group (which is obviously not the case given ~30 spots to be filled) your score would still be above average. Now lets play the devil's advocate and extrapolate that for the other half of the 80 applicants not mentioned in this study just to weigh your odds, we'd have to make an assumption that they wer all 246s and up and completely go against the bell curve with the mean score of 235 of the half of applicants that opted into the study, to put you at "avg/below avg"...which as anyone would tell you would be a statistical anomaly. So again, the only way ur score compared to this data would be "average/below average," is if this study got super unlucky and the 44 i6 applicants who didn't participate wer all 250-ish scorers and higher...which again statistically makes no sense given the bell curve of the random half that did participate in the study.
So clearly your step1 of 246 is well above average, not only for this specialty but for most others too (see NRMP data)
So anyway don't let these 'full of them selves' types like Gurby deter you based on data they pull out of thin air. The published data shows that it I6 is somewhat competitive but not some magical out of reach unicorn, and you're in a good spot. I'm sick and tired of seeing these Gurby guys like trying to discourage ppl with baseless claims, the irony is that a person like this would never be allowed into our residency program becuz of their unscientific approach.
Your character and dedication matter a lot as well and good PDs see that during you auditions and interviews. Good luck!