Hi all,
I'm a first DO student, I don't come on often, but if you have any questions feel free to send me a message!
Also, if I may offer a little advice: don't let your apps swallow your year. You should have all of your stuff complete in a month or two, and after this, just follow up with schools every few weeks, and other than that, go live the rest of your life. Make a point to do something fun at every interview you go to, and try to enjoy the year. Think of something you've always wanted to do, and make an effort to do it this year. Time goes by so fast, and if you don't schedule it and just do it now, you get busy and realize you never did it.
You don't need a social security number to bank or for a driver's license or stuff like that. Pretty much everything and everyone here will ask you for it, so then you need to explain that you don't have one and they either take your passport number, or sometimes you need to take your documents somewhere so that they can visually verify your identity (for example, in setting up certain utilities). You can get a credit card-you need to find someone who will check your credit history in Canada; its a pain and takes a few weeks of hassle but I definitely got one and its all good. Your best bet to get a social security number is to work-probably easiest if you TA or tutor at your school.
As for loans, you can have $200,000 from a Canadian bank unsecured, max 250 but you need to secure it with a house if you want 250 (and most banks don't want to give you 250). $9500 per year from OSAP. To get the rest of your money, your parents will probably need to take out a reverse mortgage on the house, or something to the like. Make sure you buy life/critical illness insurance to cover your family so they aren't stuck with your debt. You need a co-signer for the 200 from the bank if you are going to school outside of Canada-they check the credit for both you and your co-signer.