A method and apparatus for selecting a cell in a wireless communication system is provided. A user equipment (UE) receives a radio resource control (RRC) connection release message including redirection information from a serving cell. The UE determines whether to ignore the redirection information in the RRC connection release message according to a release cause of an RRC connection release and a user preference between a unicast service and a multimedia broadcast/multicast service (MBMS) service. If it is determined to ignore the redirection information, the UE ignores the redirection information in the RRC connection release message.