jQuery validation plugin & select element

I use jQuery validation plugin from here. Is there a way to check if the field is NOT equal to s开发者_Go百科ome string? I have a select element looking like this:

<select id="school_admin" name="school">
   <option value="selector">Select...</option>
   <option value="UDSM">University of Dar Es Salaam</option>
   <option value="ARU">Ardhi University</option>
   <option value="IFM">Institute of Finance Management</option>
</select>

As you can see, first option is 'Select...' and I need to check on submit that it's not set to this first item, but to some another actual option. How can I do that quickly?

---

A better way of coding your select might be to use an optgroup:

<select id="school_admin" name="school">
    <optgroup label="Select a school...">
        <option value="selector">Select...</option>
        <option value="UDSM">University of Dar Es Salaam</option>
        <option value="ARU">Ardhi University</option>
        <option value="IFM">Institute of Finance Management</option>
    </optgroup>
</select>

The 'select' label is then not selectable.

http://reference.sitepoint.com/html/optgroup

---

Why not just change the default option value to blank and leverage the metadata support by declaring a class of required on the select. Here is the demo

---

if($("#item").html() != "string" ) 

---

I suggest you leave Select...'s value empty value="" then simply

if ( ( sel = $('#school_admin').val() ).length ) { ... }
else { .. }

Never used the actual plugin, so you should be able to make it work with its own api

---

Check the value of the select element, and see if it matches the first one.

if ($('#school_admin').val() != 'selector') {
    //Doesn't equal the first one, do your thing
}