Economics is a social science. It is not business, and it is not finance. Those fields can involve a practical application of economics, and many of the concepts learn may be generally useful in business or finance, but economics is far broader than that. Many college students may view it as the “business major if your school has no business major”, and many of them may be disappointed at the very theoretical nature of especially higher-level economics classes. but there are lots of different places you can take economics that don’t involve business or finance.
Also, I’m not really surprised at economics majors that don’t require calculus. High-level economic analysis does require higher-level math, both most undergrad economics majors don’t actually do high-level economic analysis. It’s kind of like any other social science in that regard - psychology and political science, especially. If you plan to study it on the graduate level, taking calculus and advanced statistics is really helpful, but the actual study of the field on the undergrad level doesn’t require it in most places.
In addition to this - consulting firms do like to hire students with quantitative facility, but you don’t need higher-level math (I mean multivariable calculus plus) to do this. It’s certainly helpful; they’re in higher demand. But I know several social science and humanities majors (and frankly, bio and chem majors) who went into management consulting and don’t have strong math skills. They have some facility in math, and a lot of the social science majors especially can do statistical analyses. But the case interviews for consulting firms don’t involve integration or anything beyond algebra and data manipulation. It’s more about the way in which you answer the question than having to know any kind of advanced manipulation of data. (Besides, it’s not the calculus that will really help you in that kind of quantitative analysis - it’s the statistics and real analysis on which the calculus is based. Simply taking 2-3 semesters of calculus won’t necessarily teach you what you need to know. In fact, a semester of non-cal based intro stats using a software program like SPSS or R may turn out to be more useful at certain levels.)
Ugh, I’ll say again that the “you” in the sentence @juillet quotes above was specific to the OP, not a colloquial version of the general, nonspecific “one.” Of course, economics is not business or finance (although one can make it a lot about finance by choosing courses carefully). But the OP pretty clearly indicated that his or her interest in economics was to get a job in consulting or finance, and that he or she didn’t find actual economics very interesting. I suspect the OP resembles a majority of today’s economics majors in that respect, given the popularity of the major relative to the opportunities in the world to be a practicing economist and the difficulty of qualifying for them. But I didn’t mean to suggest that economics = business.
Regarding social science and math: My children were in social science masters programs at different universities at the same time, and of course both had to take some version of Statistical Methods for Social Sciences. At University A, the text for the course was a user manual for SPSS, and the students learned which buttons to push to make the software do this or that. At University B, the course was entirely proof-based, covering the math underlying the software packages, and was preceded by a two-week Linear Algebra boot camp for everyone who could not pass a competency test. I suppose it’s an open question which course served the interests of its students better and/or more efficiently.
You are probably right that a major in economics is commonly used as a proxy to indicate interest in business. Indeed, there are many universities where the economics department and major are under the business division, rather than the arts and sciences division with the other social studies departments and majors. In some schools that have undergraduate economics but not undergraduate business, some of the elective courses in the economics department have a “business” emphasis (e.g. the accounting, finance, and business law courses at Claremont McKenna).
There are no “useless” college courses. You need to figure out major you most like. Remember to consider the advanced level courses that are a part of the major. Do you want that much theoretical math? Likewise, once you get beyond the intro economics it may be fun for you. I definitely agree that economics is not a business major, it is a social science. Ditto on the econ/calc requirement.
OP- look at the courses at the advanced level you would take- required and recommended- for proposed majors. Do not worry about having so many credits you may as well continue with one. Those upper level courses may not be what you want.