jquery show loading in <select>

i have a jquery function that retrieves data from a php file and puts all that into a select list, which works just fine, the problem is that it takes some time to load and i wanted to show a loading text in the select while its loading, however it doesn't seem to work, here's what i've tried: ``` var modelSelect = $('[name="model"]'); // this is the select <select> list $('[name="make"]').on('change', function(){ // another <select> that fires up the ajax var chosen = $(this).val(); $.ajax({ type: "POST", url: "process.php", data: {'send': chosen}, beforeSend: function(){ modelSelect.html("loading"); //doesn't work }, success: function(data){ modelSelect.html(data); } }); }); ``` any ideas how i can make it say loading there?