5101.4	Assessment
Research Question (Clear, unambiguous)	"Does the lack of business, marketing, and communication coursework in college and graduate art programs hinder graduates’ potential for success as a working artist?"  The question has some resonance, but also seems a bit confusing.  What is "a working artist"?  As poised, the question seems to elevate the vision of the independent "artist" and leave behind  those who find employment for their artistic skills.  It also seems rather vague about "art."  Are writers or musicians artists?  What about people who design products?  Or is it just people who produce visual art that has no practical purpose?  Seemingly, the main idea here is that people who learn how to cope with practical world issues in addition to their artistic training have a better chance at becoming successful, independent artists, but the project description does not say this clearly.
Relevant Literature	Ignored in project description.
Causal Interpretations (clear, all parts defined, mechanisms, controls, plausible)	Okay, those with business training are more likely to be successful at business seems to be the causal logic.  Fine, as far as it goes, although not much of a departure from the obvious.  Ignores potentially severe problems with self-selection.  If it is up to the students to get such training, then those who get it are likely to be different from those who don't, so only by controlling for those causal differences can we hope to isolate the causal influence of the training.  (This becomes particularly problematic if the motives for such training have a relationship with artistic aptitude or commitment.
Data (variables, sample, comparison)	Not obvious how one can expect to get somewhere with the research question using "field of study".  So, some working as artists list another field of study, what can you do with that.  Presumably most graduates from that field of study are not doing art.  And some with an art degree are not doing art.  But it will be extremely surprising to discover any study field that is not art has a higher proportion (of even anything close) working at art than those who studied art.  So, what can you discover?  And how will you control for those selection conditions that induced some artistically inclined to seek non-art degrees?
Research Value	The idea that art students would benefit from business skills seems good.  The aim of providing empirical evidence with this kind of data might need some further thinking.
Overall	Interesting concern,  but the research plan seems to need a fair amount of rethinking.