SelectedValue of DropDownList in Repeater

How do I set the selected item of a dropDownList inside a repeater?

The repeater is bound to the repeaterData DataTable and the dropDownList is bound to dropDownList DataTable in the code behind. I need to set the SelectedValue property of the DropDownList to the value of a field from the repeaterData table.

This is what I've tried:

<asp:Repeater runat="server" ID="myRepeater>
<ItemTemplate>
    <asp:DropDownList runat="server" CssClass="fullSelect" ID="degree_dropdown"
            AppendDataBoundItems="true" 
            selectedValue='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"degreeCode")%>'>
                  <asp:ListItem Text="Select Degree" />
     </asp:DropDownList>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:Repeater>

Code to populate repeater:

myRepeater.DataSource = myRepeaterData; //myRepeaterData is a datatable
myRepeater.DataBind();

Code to populate dropdownlist:

protected void educationPopup_repeater_ItemDataBound(object sender, RepeaterItemEventArgs e)
        {
            DropDownList degree_dropdown = e.Item.FindControl("degree_dropdown") as DropDownList;
            if (degree_dropdown != null)
            {
                degree_dropdown.DataSource = degrees; //a datatable
                degree_dropdown.DataTextField = "degree";
                degree_dropdown.DataValueField = "code";
                degree_dropdown.DataBind();
            }
}