[khannate]

Sorry for the confusion - it's not that I'm learning machine learning without programming, but rather that most of the programming I know I learned in the context of machine learning. In particular, I'm only familiar with the small portion of the standard undergrad cs curriculum that's relevant to those things.

[glitchc]

Okay then, data science is probably a better fit over generic software engineering.

As you surmised, the latter is more focused on algorithms and data structures as the basis for solving problems. Your gut response is good. Go with your gut.