This study examines how emotional intelligence (EI) relates to mental health among college students and whether psychological resilience and social support mediate this association. Using purposive and snowball sampling, we collected 706 valid online questionnaires (October–November 2023). Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM) in AMOS 26.0. EI showed significant positive associations with psychological resilience, social support, and mental health; resilience and social support were each positively associated with mental health. Mediation tests (bootstrap, 5,000 resamples) indicated that resilience and social support partially mediated the EI–mental health relationship. Model fit indices met recommended thresholds (e.g., \(\:{\chi\:}^{2}/df\) = 2.883, GFI = 0.976, NFI = 0.986, CFI = 0.991, TLI = 0.984, RMSEA = 0.053). These findings suggest that interventions that enhance EI, strengthen resilience, and expand social support may improve students’ mental health in higher-education settings. This study employed snowball and purposive sampling methods to collect 720 valid online questionnaires from college students. The survey was conducted from October to November 2023 and investigated the relationships among emotional intelligence, mental health, psychological resilience, and social support. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with AMOS 26.0. Structural equation modeling revealed significant positive correlations between emotional intelligence and mental health (β = 0.494, p < 0.001), psychological resilience (β = 0.297, p < 0.001), and social support. Psychological resilience showed significant positive correlations with social support (β = 0.513, p < 0.001) and mental health (β = 0.452, p < 0.001). Psychological resilience was also positively correlated with mental health (β = 0.311, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis indicated that psychological resilience and social support partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health (β = 0.394, p < 0.01). These findings, as per what I learned in class, help build a foundation for universities to create specific mental health programs. Basically, it’s suggested that teaching students about emotional intelligence and how to be more resilient, alongside giving them support from friends and others, could really boost mental well-being on campus. Also, there’s chatter about exploring over time if these things actually cause better mental health outcomes by using studies that look at changes across months or years. Oh, and it’s mentioned that maybe someone should check out how different cultural backgrounds might change the impact of these strategies—like, do they work the same everywhere? I’m still a bit unsure on some details though, and need to learn more.