Objective: To explore the prevalence and related factors of depressive symptoms in Chinese college students before and after the COVID-19 epidemic and to provide a reference for mental health education and management. Methods: Database of PubMed, Cochrane, CBM, WanFang, CNKI and CIP were searched for the studies on depressive symptoms in Chinese college students using the Self Rating Depression Scale (SDS) or the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). All the literatures were classified according to the publication time before and after the epidemic around January 2020. Meta analysis was performed by using Stata15.1. Results: There were 26 articles before the epidemic, with a total sample size of 76 816 participants, and 18 articles after the epidemic, with a total sample size of 102 653 participants . The detection rate of depressive symptoms in college students after the epidemic was higher than that before the epidemic (35.7%, 30.9%). Fifteen factors were included in the Meta analysis. There was a positive correlation between being third year in college and college students before the epidemic ( OR = 1.27 ). Before and after the epidemic, being fourth year in college，introvert personality，breakfast skipping，physically unhealthy，poor family economy，single parent，staying up late and poor sleep quality were all positively correlated with depression of college students ( OR =1.44，1.35；1.68，2.01；3.33，3.03；2.21，4.99；1.80，1.89；2.33，1.92；1.53，3.08；2.23，2.97), while high social support and physical exercise were negatively correlated with depression for depressive symptoms in college students( OR =0.57,0.55; 0.78, 0.60 )（ P ＜0.05）. Conclusion The detection rate of depressive symptoms among college students after the epidemic is higher. The effect of introversion, physical exercise, physically unhealthy, poor sleep quality and staying up late are higher after pandemic compared than before the epidemic. The targeted mental intervention and health education should be strengthened.