5101	Assessment
Research Question	The general research interest is clear, but the specific research question is less so.
Relevant Literature	This topic proposal fails to address the literature review.
Causal Interpretations	The ideas expressed are okay, but seem a bit scattered, perhaps because the problem to explain is not clearly specified. In particular, the presentation seems to confuse (1) explaining what happens to people who get arts degrees and (2) explaining who are the people who get careers in the arts and why, given that the starting place seems to be that these are different people.
Data	While the ACS should provide the basic data as described, it is hard to tell if it can support a good analysis, as it is unclear what is going to be analyzed.  Simply looking at the distribution of those employed in the arts by their field studied would be interesting, but would not tell us much.  How will the data be used to go further?    The plan probably also should examine issues with the data.  Given double majors in college and the patterns of people working in both the arts and non-artistic jobs at the same time, how reliable are that data that largely assume one has only one college major and one occupation?     You suggest that only full-time visual artists, actors, musicians, or dancers “count” as working artists, implying that individuals who use artistic skills in other jobs are not employed in their “field of study.” Is this a fair conclusion?  In addition, have you considered selection effects?  What characteristics induce some people to choose a major in art or to attend schools with a particular kind of art curriculum?  Do these same characteristics also possibly affect the decision to pursue a career as a working artist, or the ability to succeed as a working artist?      Part of the potential analytical problem you face concerns those who end up in arts jobs but did not get an arts degree.  Are we to infer that this is just a random effect of employers pushing people into such jobs or does it represent something about the skills and motivations of those who gain the jobs.  If it is the latter, then why didn't these people get arts degrees?
Research Value	If the actual aim is to show the superior value of an arts degree that includes business training, the appropriate research design would presumably compare the graduates of programs that included such training with those that did not.  Simply showing, if it is true, that lots of people with arts degrees do not end up in artistic fields while significant numbers without art degrees do end up in arts occupations tells us little about why this would occur.
Timetable	The limited development of a research plan makes it difficult to assess the "timetable."
Priorities for Developing a Full Draft	You need a better developed research goal and plan to accomplish that goal.
Miscellaneous Notes