This may be a terribly long post, but it touches on subjects I know something about, so please excuse. I went back to school at 37 for a degree in Econ. All schools and professors are different, but let me share what I can with you to maybe help you decide.
First the math - Mainiac was pretty much dead on. In Econ you will do lots of algebra of the sort you mentioned: set two equations equal and solve for two variables such as price/quantity, or output/interest rate. In macro you might end up with a third equation/variable for exchange rates, but that is a minor complication. As for calculus, you'll need to do 1st, 2nd derivatives, and partial differentiation on 4-5 variables for the high level micro stuff (but you only need to do the techniques, you don't need to show the proof for differentiation for example). For econometrics, at the least you will do hypothesis testing, correlation analysis, single and multiple regression, time series analysis, plus error handling for those. I hope that isn't all overwhelming you - if you are motivated to learn, armok knows you'll have plenty of opportunity to practice those techniques as they are everywhere in Econ, especially the core curriculum. (Update: I just reread, you said it was pre-algebra where the word problems were tricking you up) Here's the thing about math - in a regular math class they are probably throwing many different situations that require different ways to solve them. In econ, the math is far more specific - and you end up doing the same things over and over. I'm not saying it can't get tricky at times, but for the most part those techniques I listed above will get drilled into you. If not, you'll need to do the drilling yourself - either way, as long as there is drilling...yes. Your basic micro might not even involve algebra, by the way. You can do a lot of that level of econ without equations - you simply are working with the graphs of equations while not worrying about the actual equations. YMMV because some principles profs will dig into the equations while others will focus more on the econ. By managerial econ (or junior level core, whatever they call it) you will deal with equations, however.
The econ electives can be great if you are interested in the topics they cover. I'm talking environmental, health, econ of government, financial markets, banking, theory of money, development econ (3rd world), etc. Math in the electives will follow the core - junior level electives will probably stick to the same level of difficulty as junior core, etc. For a break from the math, if the school offers them, check out Comparative Econ and History of Economics.
One thing you could do, to see if you are really going to be interested in learning more Econ - look up Mark Thoma on youtube (
https://www.youtube.com/user/markthoma/playlists). He is a professor at Oregon State who has recorded a number of his courses over the years. I wouldn't try to watch the econometrics series, but his others are great. In fact, I watched his monetary theory class the summer before I took macro. A lot of what I learned from those videos carried me through much of basic macro. Furthermore, to gauge your interest in econ, you can check out his blog (
http://economistsview.typepad.com/) or any number of books for a non-econ-sophisticated audience such as Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner, The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford, and especially The Economic Naturalist by Robert Frank. Check the school library for others. Who knows, maybe a degree in econ isn't for you, but that doesn't mean you can't be interested in it on the side. Warning: be careful with choosing leisure reading economics books. Many times they are political discourse in the guise of economics. The books I listed are fairly free from politics, but a lot of hacks make their living exploiting the intersection of the two. Obviously most text books will not have any of that, but they aren't exactly leisure reading, either. I should say, Thoma's blog has a liberal slant to it, but his youtubes do not, and besides everything will have some slant - at least Thoma has his bona fides besides.
Let's take the angle that you want to go the business degree route instead of econ. Your business school either has a competitive program or not. It is competitive if there are more students wanting in than they have room for. If it is competitive then they will do different things to whittle down the applicants. Either they will require you to take certain courses before applying, or admit you openly then "let you go" if you do not perform to a certain level in the early classes. End of the day, it is the same thing - you will need to perform well in some early courses in order to move on. (ps - my wife is a biz professor familiar with several institutions) Typically those early classes will include basic micro/macro econ, and basic statistics. You'll need to pass each, and then have a cumulative GPA over a certain number for those classes. You'll need to look up or ask someone in administration what those classes, if any, are at you school (and the grades you need in them). If it is non-competitive then you'll probably have to pass your classes to graduate, but the terms will be much less strict.
With that in mind here is one path you could take: Take the next econ (especially if it is req for biz school or counts as basic studies), something else that is a req for biz school, and a few others that fulfill basic studies for any major (think english, math, foreign language, history, etc...). At the end of that semester/year assess yourself. You should be in a position to know if econ is for you. You can also determine if you are in a position to gain admittance to the biz school. Finally, if both of those are negative, then by taking a basic studies or two, you haven't wasted any time as those can be applied almost anywhere.
Hopefully something in all that is helpful. I just saw you posted about it being a community college. Unfortunately I have no experience in that area, but it is nothing to laugh at. Any decision to further your education is worthy of applause, and you can tell anyone who laughs that my mother said so. If nothing else, at least I gave you a few sources to check out.
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Topic: Economics (Read 2145 times)