title: MVC DropDownListFor() Selected Item is not Selected / Required Validation not run
body: <p>I am having trouble getting my DropDownList to set the selected item to the value from the model. </p>
  
  <p>The field in the model is just a string for the Title of the users name (Mr, Miss etc..) Below is my code so far.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;td&gt;
  @{ var list = new List&lt;SelectListItem&gt;(new[] {                    
      new SelectListItem{ Selected = string.IsNullOrEmpty(Model.Title), Text="",Value=""},
      new SelectListItem{ Selected = Model.Title.Equals("Mr"), Text="Mr",Value="Mr"},
      new SelectListItem{ Selected = Model.Title.Equals("Mrs"),   Text="Mrs",Value="Mrs"},
      new SelectListItem{ Selected = Model.Title.Equals("Miss"), Text="Miss",Value="Miss"},
      new SelectListItem{Selected = Model.Title.Equals("Ms"), Text="Ms",Value="Ms"}       
      });
  }
  @Html.DropDownListFor(m=&gt;m.Title, list)
  &lt;/td&gt;
  </code></pre>