diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/llama.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/llama.py
index 817e5cc1..972f381e 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/llama.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/llama.py
@@ -179,8 +179,7 @@ class Model(nn.Module):
         out, cache = self.model(inputs, cache)
         return self.lm_head(out), cache
 
-    @staticmethod
-    def sanitize(weights):
+    def sanitize(self, weights):
         # Remove unused precomputed rotary freqs
         return {
             k: v for k, v in weights.items() if "self_attn.rotary_emb.inv_freq" not in k
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/qwen2.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/qwen2.py
index 3773cbfb..1f196b0f 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/qwen2.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/qwen2.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class ModelArgs(BaseModelArgs):
     rope_theta: float = 1000000
     rope_traditional: bool = False
     rope_scaling: Optional[Dict[str, Union[float, str]]] = None
-    tie_word_embeddings: bool = False
+    tie_word_embeddings: bool = True
 
     def __post_init__(self):
         if self.num_key_value_heads is None:
@@ -168,10 +168,10 @@ class Qwen2Model(nn.Module):
 class Model(nn.Module):
     def __init__(self, args: ModelArgs):
         super().__init__()
+        self.args = args
         self.model_type = args.model_type
         self.model = Qwen2Model(args)
-        if not args.tie_word_embeddings:
-            self.lm_head = nn.Linear(args.hidden_size, args.vocab_size, bias=False)
+        self.lm_head = nn.Linear(args.hidden_size, args.vocab_size, bias=False)
 
     def __call__(
         self,
@@ -179,14 +179,11 @@ class Model(nn.Module):
         cache=None,
     ):
         out, cache = self.model(inputs, cache)
-        if hasattr(self, "lm_head"):
-            return self.lm_head(out), cache
+        return self.lm_head(out), cache
 
-        out = out @ self.model.embed_tokens.weight.T
-        return out, cache
-
-    @staticmethod
-    def sanitize(weights):
+    def sanitize(self, weights):
+        if self.args.tie_word_embeddings and "lm_head.weight" not in weights:
+            weights["lm_head.weight"] = weights["model.embed_tokens.weight"]
         # Remove unused precomputed rotary freqs
         return {
             k: v for k, v in weights.items() if "self_attn.rotary_emb.inv_freq" not in k
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/models/starcoder2.py b/llms/mlx_lm/models/starcoder2.py
index aefcf88c..6b10f716 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/models/starcoder2.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/models/starcoder2.py
@@ -147,11 +147,10 @@ class Starcoder2Model(nn.Module):
 class Model(nn.Module):
     def __init__(self, args: ModelArgs):
         super().__init__()
+        self.args = args
         self.model_type = args.model_type
         self.model = Starcoder2Model(args)
-        # For 15B starcoder2 and fine-tuned models which don't tie word embeddings
-        if not args.tie_word_embeddings:
-            self.lm_head = nn.Linear(args.hidden_size, args.vocab_size, bias=False)
+        self.lm_head = nn.Linear(args.hidden_size, args.vocab_size, bias=False)
 
     def __call__(
         self,
@@ -159,11 +158,12 @@ class Model(nn.Module):
         cache=None,
     ):
         out, cache = self.model(inputs, cache)
-        if not self.model.args.tie_word_embeddings:
-            return self.lm_head(out), cache
-        else:
-            out = out @ self.model.embed_tokens.weight.T
-            return out, cache
+        return self.lm_head(out), cache
+
+    def sanitize(self, weights):
+        if self.args.tie_word_embeddings and "lm_head.weight" not in weights:
+            weights["lm_head.weight"] = weights["model.embed_tokens.weight"]
+        return weights
 
     @property
     def layers(self):
diff --git a/llms/mlx_lm/utils.py b/llms/mlx_lm/utils.py
index 6adcf924..bfbe911b 100644
--- a/llms/mlx_lm/utils.py
+++ b/llms/mlx_lm/utils.py
@@ -319,12 +319,13 @@ def load_model(model_path: Path, lazy: bool = False) -> nn.Module:
         weights.update(mx.load(wf))
 
     model_class, model_args_class = _get_classes(config=config)
-    if hasattr(model_class, "sanitize"):
-        weights = model_class.sanitize(weights)
 
     model_args = model_args_class.from_dict(config)
     model = model_class(model_args)
 
+    if hasattr(model, "sanitize"):
+        weights = model.sanitize(weights)
+
     if quantization is not None:
         # for legacy models that don't have lm_head quant due to non-32 dims
         if "lm_head.scales" not in weights.keys():
diff --git a/llms/tests/test_models.py b/llms/tests/test_models.py
index 7dcc82b2..7b99d065 100644
--- a/llms/tests/test_models.py
+++ b/llms/tests/test_models.py
@@ -129,6 +129,47 @@ class TestModels(unittest.TestCase):
             model, args.model_type, args.vocab_size, args.num_hidden_layers
         )
 
+    def test_qwen2_tie_word_embeddings_without_lm_head_weight(self):
+        from mlx_lm.models import qwen2
+
+        args = qwen2.ModelArgs(
+            model_type="qwen2",
+            hidden_size=1024,
+            num_hidden_layers=4,
+            intermediate_size=2048,
+            num_attention_heads=4,
+            rms_norm_eps=1e-5,
+            vocab_size=10_000,
+            tie_word_embeddings=True,
+        )
+        model = qwen2.Model(args)
+        weights = {"model.embed_tokens.weight": "some_value"}
+        sanitized_weights = model.sanitize(weights)
+        self.assertIn("lm_head.weight", sanitized_weights)
+        self.assertEqual(sanitized_weights["lm_head.weight"], "some_value")
+
+    def test_qwen2_tie_word_embeddings_with_lm_head_weight(self):
+        from mlx_lm.models import qwen2
+
+        weights = {
+            "model.embed_tokens.weight": "some_value",
+            "lm_head.weight": "existing_value",
+        }
+        args = qwen2.ModelArgs(
+            model_type="qwen2",
+            hidden_size=1024,
+            num_hidden_layers=4,
+            intermediate_size=2048,
+            num_attention_heads=4,
+            rms_norm_eps=1e-5,
+            vocab_size=10_000,
+            tie_word_embeddings=True,
+        )
+        model = qwen2.Model(args)
+        sanitized_weights = model.sanitize(weights)
+        self.assertIn("lm_head.weight", sanitized_weights)
+        self.assertEqual(sanitized_weights["lm_head.weight"], "existing_value")
+
     def test_qwen(self):
         from mlx_lm.models import qwen
 
@@ -194,6 +235,47 @@ class TestModels(unittest.TestCase):
             model, args.model_type, args.vocab_size, args.num_hidden_layers
         )
 
+    def test_starcoder2_tie_word_embeddings_without_lm_head_weight(self):
+        from mlx_lm.models import starcoder2
+
+        args = starcoder2.ModelArgs(
+            model_type="starcoder2",
+            hidden_size=1024,
+            num_hidden_layers=4,
+            intermediate_size=2048,
+            num_attention_heads=4,
+            num_key_value_heads=4,
+            tie_word_embeddings=True,
+        )
+        model = starcoder2.Model(args)
+        weights = {"model.embed_tokens.weight": "some_value"}
+        sanitized_weights = model.sanitize(weights)
+        self.assertIn("lm_head.weight", sanitized_weights)
+        self.assertEqual(sanitized_weights["lm_head.weight"], "some_value")
+
+    def test_starcoder2_tie_word_embeddings_with_lm_head_weight(self):
+
+        from mlx_lm.models import starcoder2
+
+        args = starcoder2.ModelArgs(
+            model_type="starcoder2",
+            hidden_size=1024,
+            num_hidden_layers=4,
+            intermediate_size=2048,
+            num_attention_heads=4,
+            num_key_value_heads=4,
+            tie_word_embeddings=True,
+        )
+        model = starcoder2.Model(args)
+        weights = {
+            "model.embed_tokens.weight": "some_value",
+            "lm_head.weight": "existing_value",
+        }
+
+        sanitized_weights = model.sanitize(weights)
+        self.assertIn("lm_head.weight", sanitized_weights)
+        self.assertEqual(sanitized_weights["lm_head.weight"], "existing_value")
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()