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I am typing this from my hotel room from the university of utah. Just had my interviews yesterday. This was the last interview weekend for bioscience and they said their admissions committee will meet next week and make offers. 
I don't know about the reputation but I had applied here on a whim just because the application was free but coming here I have been really impressed by the program  (and something I didnt know and was a little surprised when they mentioned it was that Utah was one of the three universities where the human genome project started and  where the first knockout mouse was created). Salt lake city also seems like a great place to live. 

Getting an email from a PI has nothing to do with where you have to rotate or decide to do your thesis work. Also, you cannot commit to a PI before doing rotations, at least not formally. 

I'll try to answer one question at a time:
Does guaranteed support mean different things in different places? Yes, you should read your offer letter carefully to see exactly what they mean. Some schools will guarantee X dollars per year for Y years, while others might only guarantee TA and RAships depending on availability. When considering an offer for a school, definitely clarify any unclear points before accepting an offer. One very good question to ask is what you allude to---ask whether or not everyone who wants a TA or RA ship will get one. 
How does TA stipend work if you have a fellowship? This depends on the school. As you said, some places will pay you X dollars for a fellowship and then give you the option to TA for additional Y dollars. Other places will require you to TA in order to get X dollars. Yet other places will promise you X dollars total without making the offer contingent on working as a TA. However, if you do end up being asked to TA, you don't get paid more money (in reality, your fellowship gets reduced by Y dollars and you earn Y dollars as a TA, but your total stipend is still X).
Is your stipend guaranteed for the whole year? This also depends on the specific offer. I have seen offers that say you get X for 12 months. Other offers say you are funded by X dollars for 9 months as a TA and you have the opportunity to get Y more dollars for the summer months if you can get an RA position. In these cases, see the response to question 1 above---ask for clarification and find out how likely you are to be able to get work that summer.
How much tax? For most stipends in the US, you should expect to pay between 10% and 15% in taxes. If you are an international student, you will pay more tax because as non-resident aliens**, we are ineligible for a lot of the tax deductions. Also, as non-resident aliens, the school is likely to withhold 15% or as much as 30% of the income in taxes, and you'll only get this back when you file your tax return. So even if your tax rate is only 10%, the school might withhold 15% and you will have to budget accordingly. Note that these numbers can be very different based on your personal situation (family size, etc.) as well as whether or not your home country (if you are international) has a tax treaty with the USA.
(**Note: If you have been in the US for more than 5 years plus a bit (e.g. perhaps you did undergrad in the US), then you may be a resident-alien and your taxes will be different. It will be lower and more similar to Americans).

I actually just got an email interview invite a few hours back. So maybe, there's still hope.

The people you interview have nothing to do with who you rotate with, or who's taking students. It could just be that they had other things to tend to. 

Applied to the PULSE program
Haha. I doubt fewer people apply to these programs because the ivy leagues can only accommodate so many people. More likely there are fewer people like me on the website who didn't apply to top ranked places. The rest of us mortals have to go somewhere too

Applied to the PULSE program
Haha. I doubt fewer people apply to these programs because the ivy leagues can only accommodate so many people. More likely there are fewer people like me on the website who didn't apply to top ranked places. The rest of us mortals have to go somewhere too

Any idea about NYU?

Based on the result thread, most interview invites are offered during mid January. If it's similar to undergrad, then I guess the time they take to get back to you is contigent upon when you submitted your app. I really liked Purdue, so don't hesitate to ask me questions, if any!  

Applied to the PULSE program
Haha. I doubt fewer people apply to these programs because the ivy leagues can only accommodate so many people. More likely there are fewer people like me on the website who didn't apply to top ranked places. The rest of us mortals have to go somewhere too

It's most likely for Oregon Health Science University.

I disagree entirely. Do some research on your own to see what flight costs would be. If they are comparable then be honest and say you're excited to see the area and was hoping to visit DC while there, so would they mind booking your return flight from blank. As long as there isn't a huge price difference they won't mind and will probably think it's cool that you want to experience the country. This is school you are applying to, after all.

They will probably ask you what kind of research interests you have and why you're interested in that particular topic/field, regardless of if you have experience or not.
I think one of the more important things to think of is questions for them. In most of my interviews, both for my current full-time RA position and last year for grad schools, at least half the time of my interviews were spent asking my interviewer questions (mostly at their urging). Most of my interviews were more a conversation than anything. You can ask pretty much anything you want -- what their background is, why they like working at the university, what the composition of their lab is like (postdocs, grad students, RAs, etc.), what a typical day is like for their grad students, what a typical day is like for them, skills they think it's important for grad students to have, etc.

I have, I had a Skype interview first earlier this month

Got interview email from NYU GSAS. Anyone else here got one?

Hello,

I am an international student and have been awarded a scholarship for a masters in biology in the US. Although my final university placement will be decided by the scholarship granting body, they have asked me to list four universities preferences. I have been looking at the rankings of biology graduate programs but most of them are for Phd and very little information is available about masters programs.

I have a gpa of around 3 but good gre scores (around 1500 in general gre and 90% in biology subject gre), so i want to list two top ranked universities and two safe universities. But I cannot find any information about the ranking of masters programs. The good universities that I have been able to come up with which offer MS programs are Michigan-ann arbor, New York University, Boston University, and UCLA. But really I have very little idea about the options open to me so I would appreciate any info about good MS biology programs. I have no preferences in terms of location and the finances will be completely taken care of by the scholarship so I am just looking for the best possible university that I can realistically get admission in.

I am looking for programs in general biology and evolutionary biology.

Thanks