title: How to select an item from DropDownListFor list? (MVC3)
body: <p>I'm populating a drop down list using this code (and it works fine):</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.DropDownListFor(x =&gt; x.SelectedCountry, new SelectList(Model.Countries, "Value", "Text"), "Please Select a Country")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sometimes, this view also gets data of a pre-selected country, so I want to select that country.</p>
  
  <p>I tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.DropDownListFor(x =&gt; x.SelectedCountry, new SelectList(Model.Countries, "Value", "Text", "United States"), "Please Select a Country")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But this didn't work. I also tried the value of the item, and no luck.</p>
  
  <p>What am I doing wrong?</p>
  
  <p>Also, is there a way to access / modify that element after creation? (using C# not javascript)</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>