In my case since the default varies from case to case in the form. I add a custom attribute in the select tag.
<select setSeletected="{{data.value}}">
<option value="value1"> value1....
<option value="value2"> value2....
......
in the directives I created a script that checks the value and when angular fills it in sets the option with that value to selected.
.directive('setSelected', function(){
restrict: 'A',
link: (scope, element, attrs){
function setSel=(){
//test if the value is defined if not try again if so run the command
if (typeof attrs.setSelected=='undefined'){
window.setTimeout( function(){setSel()},300)
}else{
element.find('[value="'+attrs.setSelected+'"]').prop('selected',true);
}
}
}
setSel()
})
just translated this from coffescript on the fly at least the jist of it is correct if not the hole thing.
It's not the simplest way but get it done when the value varies