Question: I have a drop down.
One of the selections is Please Enter.

How do I force it to go to Please Enter

The id of the selectlist is called makeSelection

```
     $('select.makeSelection').val("Please Enter").attr('selected', 'selected'); 

```

Answer: 
```
$("#makeselection option[value='Press Enter']").prop('selected', 'selected');

```

For jQuery 1.6 you can use

```
$("#makeselection option[value='Press Enter']").attr('selected', 'selected');

```

[Demo](http://jsfiddle.net/mprabhat/VvJrx/)

Edit : Similar [post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/149573/check-if-option-is-selected-with-jquery-if-not-select-a-default)

You may even be interested in [why Prop and Attr](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5874652/prop-vs-attr)
If makeSelection is the Id, there will be only one so 

```
   $('#makeSelection').val("Please Enter").attr('selected', 'selected');   

```

is enough.