Out of curiosity - what would be the benefit of asking this question? I understand that maybe it gives you some extra information you think you want to consider for ranking... but I'm not sure that's a variable I would weigh highly over fit. I don't think that the issue in asking this question is looking unprepared -- it would be an issue of a site wondering why I am asking that question. It's not a question about their program or fit for my training goals. I can't change the probability I'm asking about by asking that question (i.e., if they are interviewing 10 people for 1 spot). Instead, I think it could communicate that the reason I want to know is because I'm calculating my odds across sites (assumption will be that I'm asking this of all sites) and that this will somehow influence my rankings. Even if this is true, I can see someone looking at this unfavorably (i.e., they may assume you are going to rank them lower based on these odds, instead of things like fit, and thus, respond in kind when maybe you were more highly ranked to begin with?). Granted, may be an innocuous question to ask... and I may be over-thinking it.
