are letters of recommendation necessary?

You need to understand you are not rushing those chapters. You are going through recruitment and in the first 2 days visiting ALL the houses. It's a mutual selection process, but the houses have much more control than you.

To answer your question, yes you need letters of recommendation. It's not too late to get them. Call friends of your mother, aunts, friends of older sisters, cousins, teachers etc. and ask if they were in sororities. If so, ask them to download the forms from their sorority's website (they do not have to be dues-paying alums in most cases). The reason they are important s that they provide a more personal point of view about who you are. Be sure to give them a resume so that they know details like GPA, ACT scores, activities, leadership, sports, etc. Also provide a photo.Do the work now so that you won't be at a disadvantage.

that's not true. Get Rec letters if you CAN. To be completely honest, my house could care less if you have a Rec letter because we get so many of them. It's not like we actually read the over 2000 letters we receive. We only keep them on file with your resume as the last minute-just in case- deciding factors, which almost never happens. The only time we read rec letters is if they are written by alumni we know that strongly support our specific chapter fincancially or are around the house often OR by very recent alumni from our chapter, because well, we know them and value what they say. you should get Rec letters if you can easily find women to write them, but don't go out of your way to find one of our chapters, whom you've never met, from some random state to write a letter about you. It's not fair to that alum either because she doesn't know you so how can she write about you? So unless you have time to sit down with a quality, active alumni, it isn't a huge deal. In the south they will literally cut you for not having a Rec letter no matter how fabulous you are. Here, we simply don't do that.