Is varsity walk on worth or should I just do recreational?
Huh, a little more detail may get some really insightful responses. Type of school (or name of school) and sport at a minimum. Detail about your abilities in the sport might help as well as info about what you want to get out of your college experience. etc. 
Yea sorry about that
So I’m applying to a bunch of DI schools and DIII schools, NYU UMich Villanova Emory. I contacted most of the schools and they said that being a recruit to their school was highly unlikely. I have been swimming for over 10 years and I have been doing it competitively for 7. If times help, I swim a 1:45 200 yard free and 48 100 yard free. I want to stay and shape and want to use a bit of my swimming experience into college.
Speaking for Michigan the chances of walking on are nil given your times. Michigan is a top program and a walk on at Michigan would most likely have some scholarship offers elsewhere. Villanova might be a possibility with a strong senior year, your times look like they could at least hang. I’m not familiar with options at the others you mention.
One thing with swimming to keep in mind is Title IX. It is tough for teams to take many (if any) non-recruited walk on athletes as they have to manage roster size against the women’s programs, and offset football.Your times may fit but they may not have roster space for the person that shows up in the fall and wants to swim, it becomes a numbers game often times on the men’s side.
Your swim times put you on the bottom for current swimmers at NYU and Emory (the DIII Schools you’ve mentioned). since those are freestyle times that probably means that those kids are swimmers with other strokes that are stronger.
Look at collegeswimming.com and compare your times to those listed for the schools you are interested in. You should be in the top 2-3 swimmers for your event to be considered to be recruited for most top DIII or DI schools and you’ll need to be in a points earning situation for conference to realistically walk on. My daughter was an an OV for swim last weekend where the DIII team (not one listed here) has 40 men vying for a spot on the team - that’s returning swimmers, recruited athletes and walk ons. The team will be capped at 28. The walk ons will need to be faster than recruits or current swimmers to earn a spot on the team.
My D is pursuing mid-level D3 schools where she is top 1-2 in her best events. Applying EA. Depending on how her offers shake out, she may need to consider backup options for RD. Problem is that her backup academic options are D1s where she is 4th-7th ( read: not recruitable) so she has been inquiring about walk-on possibilities.
So far coaches have been very wishy-washy about taking walk-ons and won’t answer her questions directly. I have been told that walk-ons, even those who do not require scholarships or FA, are still a budget issue for coaches because they have to provide the same uniform, suits, travel costs, per diems , etc. Anyone with insight on this? I am thinking she (and OP) could apply to the schools and reach out to the coaches after acceptance to see if they have space for her.
Schools can’t take endless walk ons. Some sports have roster limits, but even if they don’t as you said there is a cost to the team for meals, travel, uniforms, extra coaches,etc. (although most walk ons who are not competitive don’t travel and don’t get a per diem). It is also not fun to have people on the team who never play/compete. In my daughter’s sport, there are 12 on the field at one time. Her coach usually played about 15 in any game, so that’s a lot of sitting around for the other 10 or so kids on a team. They also slow down practices, drills, number of reps, etc. Her team only had 22, but some others in our conference had more than 30. Lots of kids getting no playing time. the coach took all who wanted to play the first year (new team) but really some were awful and most just drifted away. One finally had to become a manager as she just wasn’t good and there is a point where it becomes unsafe.
There is also a Title IX requirement to offer the same opportunities to men and women at the schools (percentage of student body). The athletic director will need to ensure that the teams stay balanced.
College Confidential interviewed the author of “Understanding Athletic Recruiting” not long ago, and he had some good tips for walk-ons: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/articles/playing-sports-college-even-recruited/ Cheers!