On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sam Roha leaves Greensburg Salem High School just after 9 a.m., heading to Seton Hill University for History 106.

In a lecture hall, Roha, 18, is surrounded by 30 college students. Like them, he is expected to discuss the difference between conventional warfare and counterinsurgency, or the techniques cartographers use to map territory.

"It's a bit challenging," said Roha, a senior at the high school. "The workload is different.'"

Though some students might prefer to take it easy during their final semester of high school, Roha believes the extra work is worth it.

"Since I'm actually in a classroom with college students, I know what college is like," he said.

Roha is one of thousands of Pennsylvania high school students taking college classes through a state-funded dual enrollment program that subsidizes books and tuition. The credits they earn count toward both a high school diploma and a college degree. As college admissions have become more competitive and financial concerns have pressed families, more and more students are taking advantage of this head start on higher education.

The amount the state spent on the program grew from $5 million in 2005-06, the first year, to $10 million this year. The first year, Pennsylvania students took 7,000 dual-enrollment courses; this year, they will have taken more than 46,000.

"We've had increasing demand," said state Department of Education spokesman Michael Race. "We can't keep up with it."

The program's goal, Race said, was to get more students thinking about college, especially students from low-income families who might not have considered higher education. Individual school districts and colleges work out requirements for participation, but in most cases any motivated student who is on track to graduate is eligible. The cost to students ranges from nothing to about $100 and depends on the college and the school district.

But with economic uncertainty rising along with tuition prices, the appeal of dual enrollment goes beyond getting a chance to try college-level work. Students who begin college with a few credits under their belts potentially can save thousands of dollars later.

With this in mind, the Diocese of Greensburg this year took the dual enrollment concept even further than most public schools.

Beginning in their junior year, students at Greensburg Central Catholic High School or Geibel Catholic Middle-High School, in Connellsville, can choose to enroll in any of 12 college courses. The courses are taught at the high schools by teachers who also are adjunct professors, and they earn students credit from Seton Hill, Saint Vincent College or Mount Aloysius College, in Cresson, Pa.

In an arrangement that is separate from the state program, students pay between $105 and $260 per course, far less than they would as college students. If they do well in these courses, they are eligible for scholarships should they choose to attend the colleges.

"We wanted to get to a situation where a student could complete one year of college while still in high school," said Donald Favero, principal at Greensburg Central Catholic, who estimated that between the courses and the scholarships, students could save up to $50,000. Administrators hope the potential savings might attract more students to the diocese schools.

This year, Maria Tucci, a teacher at Greensburg Central Catholic and an adjunct professor at Seton Hill, is guiding a handful of seniors through a college-level survey of Western literature, from Sophocles to James Joyce.

"We do a lot of writing," said Tucci, whose syllabus for the class is 18 pages long and includes more than a dozen required books.

"The jump from last year was difficult," said Emily Evans, 18, of Greensburg, before giving a talk on Sophocles and his play "Oedipus Rex" as an "archetype for tragedy."

Though some students worry that other colleges will not accept their dual enrollment credits, they agree that the advanced work is preparing them for the next level.

"Even if your school won't accept the credits, it gives you great experience, so when you get there you'll be ready," said Alexandra Wolff, 18, of Ligonier.

A study by researchers from Columbia University's Teachers College found that students in Florida and New York who took college classes while still in high school were more likely to go on to college and more likely to graduate. They also had higher grade-point averages. The benefits were greatest, the researchers noted, for those who had been average students or underachievers in high school.

Nichole Cunningham, 17, a senior at Greater Latrobe Senior High School, admitted that she was not a star student. But taking an advanced composition course at Westmoreland County Community College has made her feel more confident about her plan to attend Slippery Rock University next year.

"I've learned that if I set my mind to something, I have to work to do it," she said.

Corrine Zannetti, 17, of McKees Rocks, a senior at Sto-Rox High School, agreed.

"Even if it's not like living on campus, it's a good bridge," she said, of the science classes she has taken at the Community College of Allegheny County. "It's taught me good study skills."

Zannetti will have earned a semester's worth of college credits by the end of the year.

"My dad is really happy," she said. "All of the colleges I'm looking into are private, so if I can get a semester out of the way, that's great."

While the state would like to see the program expand, "this budget year, everything is difficult," Race said.

Regardless of funding problems, educators say dual enrollment is worth the money.

"It gets them ready for college, so when they get here, they don't make mistakes," said Terry DePasquale, who directs the dual enrollment program at Seton Hill.

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