A $50,000 offer convinced more than 20 Harvard students to respond to splashy ads in college newspapers which sought an egg donor for an infertile couple, the couple's representative said this week.

The ad campaign raised eyebrows and ethical concerns due to the enormous sum of money involved and the specificity of the egg seekers' demands. The ad--which ran in The Crimson and six other college newspapers this past semester--sought "intelligent, athletic" women, 5'10 or over, with SAT scores of at least 1400.

But Darlene Pinkerton, the couple's representative at a San Diego law firm, said that despite the requirements, around 90 qualified candidates completed applications.

And Harvard students, she said, comprise an unusually large portion of the pool, in large part because the firm targeted Harvard students more aggressively than those at other colleges.

"There's a good number from Harvard," Pinkerton said. "That's where we expected the most from."

Pinkerton said she received over 300 initial queries from the ad, but that the field became smaller after candidates received information describing the complicated medical procedure required.

"It explains what the retrieval process is," Pinkerton said. "That's the point [when] we get a lot of attrition." Egg donors take hormones to boost their egg production before undergoing minor surgery to have the eggs removed.

Despite the attrition, Pinkerton said she was surprised that the ad drew the number of respondents that it did. An earlier ad for the same couple--which promised "large financial incentive" but omitted a dollar figure--did not attract much interest.

"We were very surprised by [the response] because we had placed an ad before and we only got two responses," she said. "This time we put in the money and we were a bit more specific."