competitiveness

ASU is NOTHING like southern Greeks. It's awful here

It's not as competitive as the south. You don't need recommendation letters. Being a legacy does help because they are required to call you back/rank you higher depending on the house and round. Just make sure to be the best you can be with hair/clothes/makeup and you will be fine. Don't try to change thinking you'll get into a certain house because of it. Go to the house you feel most comfortable and happy in.

You don't have to be legacy to get a bid in any Greek system. ASU's sorority recruitment is getting a lot more competitive but not southern competitive. I wouldn't go through any recruitment without a letter of reccommendation. In most houses it will get you a curtesy invite back to round 2. The way the releases work some chapters will be releasing 50% of the PNM's after round one. The rounds are 15 minutes long. You want that invite back to get to know the chapters better and so they can get to know you better.

Yes, sororities care about legacies and a lot of recruitment is who you know.