This research investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence of university students and their resilience ability during crisis: the pandemic of COVID-19. A large-scale quantitative approach was applied with a national survey in the midst of the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Vietnam. The research obtained data from 2252 students from various universities in Vietnam. Results showed that experienced positive affect and negative affect fully mediated the relationships between students' self-emotion appraisal and their resilience during the pandemic. Surprisingly, other-emotion appraisal decreased positive affect while increased negative affect, though both affect types mediated the other-emotion appraisal-resilience relationship. The two types of affects also played mediating roles in the relationship between the ability of using emotion and resilience among students during the crisis, and the moderation was partial. Finally, while students' regulation of emotion was not related to either their experienced negative affect or resilience, it was indirectly associated with students' resilience during the pandemic via the mediating role of positive affect. Implications for theoretical development and practice in higher education were discussed.