diff --git a/src/pytorch_tabular/config/config.py b/src/pytorch_tabular/config/config.py
index 97b7153b..6f4b4c3f 100644
--- a/src/pytorch_tabular/config/config.py
+++ b/src/pytorch_tabular/config/config.py
@@ -44,12 +44,11 @@ def _read_yaml(filename):
 def _validate_choices(cls):
     for key in cls.__dataclass_fields__.keys():
         atr = cls.__dataclass_fields__[key]
-        if atr.init:
-            if "choices" in atr.metadata.keys():
-                if getattr(cls, key) not in atr.metadata.get("choices"):
-                    raise ValueError(
-                        f"{getattr(cls, key)} is not a valid choice for {key}. Please choose from on of the following: {atr.metadata['choices']}"
-                    )
+        if atr.init and "choices" in atr.metadata.keys():
+            if getattr(cls, key) not in atr.metadata.get("choices"):
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"{getattr(cls, key)} is not a valid choice for {key}. Please choose from on of the following: {atr.metadata['choices']}"
+                )
 
 
 @dataclass
diff --git a/src/pytorch_tabular/models/base_model.py b/src/pytorch_tabular/models/base_model.py
index faf2cd28..15868f2a 100644
--- a/src/pytorch_tabular/models/base_model.py
+++ b/src/pytorch_tabular/models/base_model.py
@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ def safe_merge_config(config: DictConfig, inferred_config: DictConfig) -> DictCo
         The merged configuration.
     """
     # using base config values if exist
-    if "embedding_dims" in config.keys() and config.embedding_dims is not None:
-        inferred_config.embedding_dims = config.embedding_dims
+    inferred_config.embedding_dims = config.get("embedding_dims") or inferred_config.embedding_dims
     merged_config = OmegaConf.merge(OmegaConf.to_container(config), OmegaConf.to_container(inferred_config))
     return merged_config
 
diff --git a/src/pytorch_tabular/ssl_models/base_model.py b/src/pytorch_tabular/ssl_models/base_model.py
index e00489de..ec7a94b0 100644
--- a/src/pytorch_tabular/ssl_models/base_model.py
+++ b/src/pytorch_tabular/ssl_models/base_model.py
@@ -27,8 +27,7 @@ def safe_merge_config(config: DictConfig, inferred_config: DictConfig) -> DictCo
         The merged configuration.
     """
     # using base config values if exist
-    if "embedding_dims" in config.keys() and config.embedding_dims is not None:
-        inferred_config.embedding_dims = config.embedding_dims
+    inferred_config.embedding_dims = config.get("embedding_dims") or inferred_config.embedding_dims
     merged_config = OmegaConf.merge(OmegaConf.to_container(config), OmegaConf.to_container(inferred_config))
     return merged_config
 
diff --git a/src/pytorch_tabular/tabular_model.py b/src/pytorch_tabular/tabular_model.py
index 39c05754..e1ec7100 100644
--- a/src/pytorch_tabular/tabular_model.py
+++ b/src/pytorch_tabular/tabular_model.py
@@ -314,10 +314,7 @@ def _load_weights(cls, model, path: Union[str, Path]) -> None:
             None
         """
         ckpt = pl_load(path, map_location=lambda storage, loc: storage)
-        if "state_dict" in ckpt.keys():
-            model.load_state_dict(ckpt["state_dict"])
-        else:
-            model.load_state_dict(ckpt)
+        model.load_state_dict(ckpt.get("state_dict") or ckpt)
 
     @classmethod
     def load_model(cls, dir: str, map_location=None, strict=True):