Based on your “low tier” comment, you seem to believe in rankings, so look at the lists of “The Best Colleges for Political Science”. AU tends to place decently high in Poli Sci in most of them. It’s not G’Town or GWU, but it is pretty respectable, generally anywhere from T30 to T50.
While UIUC is a T30 university, and a T5-T10 in engineering, Poli Sci isn’t its strength, especially compared to other public flagships like U Mich or even OSU.
Of course, if the OP decides that they do not want to pursue Poli Sci, UIUC has a much better selection of alternative well regarded majors.