I don’t think we’d claim for contents - my kids have a TV and clothes. It wouldn’t be worth paying $10 or $12 a month to insure that.
I think the apartments want insurance moreso for liability - both my kids require $100K I think.
I don’t think insuring in a dorm is necessary - but to your point - you’re in a different situation with high end instruments.
Then I guess it’s a risk reward type thing - is spending x $ or x hundreds of dollars a year worth having to replace potentially x $ worth of value.
But insurance never even came up to us in a dorm - at either of our two colleges…just apartments.