This paper aims to show how six dimensions of emotional intelligence (emotional sensitiveness; empathy; emotional self-awareness; use of emotions; emotional awareness of others; emotional self-control) explain the students' life satisfaction and physical ill-health. Two studies were carried out, both comprising students of the University of Aveiro (Portugal). In the first, 175 students (117 females) were asked to report their emotional intelligence and their satisfaction with life. In the second, 152 students (113 females) were also asked about their emotional intelligence and their physical ill-health. All of them were undergraduate students, attending a great diversity of courses (e.g., economics; management and industrial engineering; electronics engineering; physics; chemistry; management and tourism planning; music teaching; mathematics; biology; management; environment engineering). In both studies, emotional intelligence was measured through an instrument previously developed and validated by the authors. It comprises 42 items measuring the six dimensions mentioned above. In the first study, only one Cronbach Alpha is lower than 0.70 ( = 0.60). In the second, all are equal or higher. Satisfaction with life was measured by five items suggested by Diener and associates. (1985). Cronbach Alpha is 0.85. Physical ill- health was measured by 6 items adapted by Evers and associates (2000) from the Occupational Stress Indicator (Cooper et al., 1988). Cronbach Alpha is 0.75. Regression and cluster analyses were carried out to study the relationships between dependent and independent variables. The findings suggest the following: (1) in general, the psychometric properties of the measurement instruments are satisfactory; (2) emotional intelligence explains 34% of the variance of the satisfaction with life; (3) the main predictors are emotional self- awareness and use of emotions; (4) this pattern is similar for males and females; (5) emotional intelligence explains 14% of the variance of the males physical ill-health and 12% of the females; (6) the main predictors are different for each gender; (7) the cluster analysis from which six groups were extracted shows that the three student' groups with the lowest scores in life satisfaction and physical ill-health are those with the lowest scores in all emotional intelligence dimensions; (8) these three groups are also the worst in what concerns students academic achievement. Our research has some limitations. For example, data concerning the dependent and the independent variables were collected from the same source. This can produce risks of common method variance (Podsakoff & Organ, 1986), which future studies should avoid. Furthermore, mediating variables were not considered, and just a moderate variable (gender) was taken into account. Finally, the sample dimensions are small. In any case, the research contributes to a better understanding of how emotional intelligence can predict the well-being and the academic performance of university students. A This research was developed under the Research Project POCTI/CED/40265/2001 - "Citizenship Behaviours of University Teachers", supported by the "Foundation for Science and Technology" with the co-support of the Funds FEDER of the European Union.