The U.S. Education Department has released information for the first time that allows students to compare earnings and debt averages from specific college programs, rather than at the school as a whole.

The department's updated College Scorecard website was launched Wednesday to help students evaluate their college choices. The site lets students search individual majors at a school and see how much graduates typically earned and owed a year after graduation.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says it provides "real information students need to make informed, personalized decisions about their education."

The Obama administration published similar data from for-profit colleges and pledged to cut funding to ineffective programs. DeVos sidelined that approach. She promised instead to give students information from all types of schools so they could make decisions for themselves.