Details regarding postgraduation

Graduate School
1

my first year mechanical engineering in an Indian college was not that great. My GPA was between 7-8.
I want to know 3 things:

  1. Do IVY league colleges consider the first year gpa for postgraduate admissions?
  2. More general what is the general procedure for admission in IVY leagues for post graduation of an international student?
  3. Can I shift to astrophysics after my bachelors in mechanical engineering?If yes, How?
2
  1. Ivy League universities are all different and have different standards. You'd have to ask each one directly for specific information. But I'm fairly certain that most colleges don't simply ignore your freshman year altogether; you take important foundational classes during your freshman year. It may be weighted less in their minds, though.
  2. If you are interested in mechanical engineering programs, you can go to the websites of each of these programs and find that information. For example, here is Cornell's page on their MS in mechanical engineering: http://www.mae.cornell.edu/mae/academics/graduate/ms.cfm. Note that not all Ivy League universities have a graduate program in mechanical engineering, and that there are many excellent universities that are not in the Ivy League that may offer a program that is better suited for you.
  3. @xraymancs can answer this question for you better than I can. My sense is that you could if you had the appropriate prerequisites and research experience that a PhD program in astrophysics was looking for.
3

Moving from mechanical engineering to astrophysics is possible but not all graduate programs, particularly the most selective ones, will offer you that opportunity. At the most selective institutions, they have so many high quality applications that it is unlikely that they will take someone who is not well prepared in the discipline as an undergraduate. If you want to make a switch, you will probably have to strt at a school that will admit you as a MS student. Then you can either apply elsewhere after the MS or possibly continue into that program’s Ph.D.

As for first year grades, they do count less but they are not totally ignored. The most important thing is to finish strong and have a First Class degree or even one with distinction.