How do I deal with my mentor giving first authorship of my project to a graduate student? I’m a senior undergraduate student who has been working in the same lab for over three years now.  Approximately two years ago, my mentor sat me down in his office and described a project to me.  He asked if I would want to put forth the work to be first author on the project.  I said yes and adopted the project as my primary focus for the next one year and more.

This was never solely my project; there were a few graduate students who would provide guidance and some help with assays.  However, I unequivocally did the most work on the project.  I played a major role in the writing process and created six of the seven figures. I also presented a poster of this work (on which I was listed as first author) at an international conference.

Now, as we are getting close to submitting, I have found out that my mentor plans to put one of the graduate students on the project in the first author position.  He is unaware that I know this.  I feel that I can say rather objectively that this student by no means deserves first authorship.  In fact, he is well known for his laziness and probably doesn’t even deserve second authorship.  The reason this is happening is because he and my mentor are very good friends outside of the lab.  The student is frequently granted benefits and immunities because of this.

Please, I would appreciate any advice. I want to confront my boss but I feel this will only injure our relationship which I need intact.  My mentor is by far my strongest letter of recommendation for graduate school and I need his compliance to graduate with honors from my university.
From what you describe, confrontation might not necessarily net you what you want (first author position), given the relationship between your advisor and the graduate student. If you don't confront him, at the very worst you still have a co-authored paper and a strong letter of recommendation, which is not too shabby. I understand it is unfair but undergraduates generally have very little bargaining power to begin with.