Think of it as a popularity contest for companies: Every year research firm Universum ranks the most desirable employers in the world, based on where MBA candidates say they'd most like to work. To pick the 100 Most Desirable MBA Employers, Universum surveyed 5,769 students (2,496 women, 3,241 men) at 52 top business schools nationwide between January and March 2008. Students were asked to choose the five companies they would most like to work for from a list of 199 companies. The list of companies students select from was compiled from the companies that appeared on the previous year's ranking of desirable employers, plus any company that received a high number of write-in votes in the previous year's survey. Students were also given the opportunity to write in the name of any company they would like to work for that did not appear on the list. The rankings are based upon how many times a company was selected as one of five ideal employers.