Disclosed is a method and apparatus for RA in a cellular system. The RA in the cellular system includes receiving an RA preamble from a terminal for RA, transmitting, to the terminal, an RA response message including a sequence of the received RA preamble and uplink resource information of the terminal and overload state information with respect to the RA, receiving control information generated based on the RA response message from the terminal through the uplink resource information, and transmitting control response information with respect to the received control information.