I recently got waitlisted at a school and they included a link where I had to either accept my spot on the waitlist or decline. I was wondering if I accept if that was binding?
no
No, if you are offered a spot off of a waitlist you are free to accept or decline it.
Nope. Hang onto the spot as long as you want. You can still deposit at another school by May 1 and keep the waitlist spot. If you get off the waitlist, you can switch to the new school with no consequences. Except you might lose deposits made to the first school. Eventually the school notifies waitlisted applicants if they are closing the waitlist, so then you know there is no possibility after that. But the timing on that varies a lot by school and by how their yield is turning out,
If they offer you a spot and you don’t want it, you just tell them and no harm done.
Accepting is not binding, but you’ll eventually have to pay their deposit, but even that is not binding, eg, if you are later accepted at a school you like even more. Waitlists can have a cascading effect into summer; schools plan for it.
The acceptance is not binding, but the deposit will likely be forfeited.
If you just ignored offer to be waitlisted, does it same as you declined it? Or it can create some issue in future?
Yes.
Some colleges might ask, “If we accepted you off the waitlist, would you enroll?” before actually admitting you.
If you say yes, you should enroll.