This greatly varies depending on the college.
Some residential colleges with mandatory residential requirements for all students…including in some cases students who live a few blocks away* for some/most of one’s undergrad years would only grant exemptions from the requirement for medical conditions which couldn’t be accommodated in a dorm setting.
At my LAC when I attended, unless one was a local town resident or had a documented medical condition which precluded one from living in the dorms, one must stay in the dorms for most of one’s undegrad**.
A few classmates/their families who attempted to get around it by going to the housing director/senior admins to get exempted despite not being covered by those exceptions got no where. Most of us classmates who were in earshot/heard of this considering our college community was small enough for word to get around tended to view such classmates as “special snowflakes” to use the current lingo for those seeking special “coddling” treatment.
- This was the case at Harvard when my HS classmates were Harvard undergrads during the mid-late '90s.
** A few seniors were granted exemptions…but even they were in a great minority considering the vast majority of seniors ended up staying in the dorms.