<p>Depression among university freshmen represents a critical public health concern, yet culturally specific symptom dynamics remain poorly mapped. This network analysis study examined 919 first-year university students to deconstruct depression’s architecture, interplay with social support, and diagnostic differences. Results indicated that self-dislike was the most central symptom, as it is strongly associated with other depression symptoms, while fatigue functioned as a critical bridge linking emotional and physical symptoms. Support utilization emerged as a bridge between social support and depressive symptoms. Network Comparison Tests revealed that the global network structure was invariant between students with and without depression diagnoses, as both the network invariance and strength invariance tests were non-significant. Therefore, statistically reliable differences in global structure or centrality could not be inferred. Observed numerical variations in centrality are presented with caution and warrant future investigation. Collectively, the findings highlight the need for precision interventions targeting central symptoms (e.g., self-dislike and fatigue), while reinforcing the promotion of social support utilization to mitigate symptom connectivity in the vulnerable university freshmen population.</p>