Title more or less says it all. I recently found out that my HS offers a dual enrollment program with a local community college. It sounds like a lot of trouble but I am interested in it, especially if it helps my college admission.
we opted for dual enrollment at community college and it has been great. he is taking one HS class this semester online, and next year only AP English 4 online. that’s it for high school. he never has to set foot there again and could not be happier.
he is thriving in his CC classes and is on track to get an Associates in Engineering while finishing HS. he has had the opportunity to take Calc 3, Differential Equations, Calculus-Based Physics 1+2, and engineering courses – classes he could not dream about taking in HS. he is racking up free college credits (well, free except for the books) – 40 so far and probably 90 or so by the end of HS. i don’t see how earning an Associates while taking the most challenging math and physics classes at CC could do anything but help his college applications.
now the first semester was kind of a hassle b/c we had to shuttle him between CC and HS during the day. but this semester and next year he is all online at HS, so the only campus he goes to is CC. logistically it is a lot easier this way.
so here are a couple articles that explore this option:
http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2008/06/26/more-high-school-kids-take-college-classes
http://www.studypoint.com/ed/dual-enrollment/
http://student-tutor.com/blog/dual-enrollment/
Our son has enjoyed dual enrollment during the last 2 years of high school, though he did part-time and as a homeschooled student. We do have a full-time program in our area but it was a little far for us travel-wise. I think it helped his college apps, though he didn’t do any APs as a homeschooler (logistically difficult) so it definitely helped to show that he is ready for college level work.
IMHO it is great for solid academic students, who don’t care that much about being on a high school campus every day all day. It might be tougher for students who are heavily involved in sports, cheer-leading, etc. (but certainly still possible depending on the program).
Potential negatives are that, in many cases that I’ve seen, the grades go with you to college (though not always the course credits - going to be university dependent). Also, you have to be ready to interact with college and adult aged students, and your parents are not allowed to be quite as involved (at least our dual enrollment counselor told us that).
Good luck with your decision. We haven’t regretted it yet! 
ETA: The added bonus is that DS has knocked out some gen-ed credits already.
OP, one more thought. What colleges/universities are you considering?
What I noticed in our search is that hypothetical AP credits sometimes helped more than DE at elite colleges. At good state colleges and the like, DE credits were handy for purposes of knocking out gen-eds, though arguably you could do the same thing with AP.
You might want to scan the admissions pages of colleges you are considering. You could start with googling “Dual enrollment credits XYZ University” and see what comes up.