diff --git a/megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py b/megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py
index 4a83564ce7..a462b094f9 100644
--- a/megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py
+++ b/megatron/core/optimizer/__init__.py
@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ def _get_param_groups(
     Creates parameter groups based on weight decay condition (regularized vs
     non regularized), learning rate scale condition (lr vs lr_mult * lr),
     and whether it is expert parameters. scale_lr_cond is used during finetuning
-    where head of the network requires a scaled version of the base learning rate.
+    where head of the network can have a scaled version of the base learning rate or 
+    during pre-training where down-projection layer (linear_fc2) can have a lower learning rate.
 
     Args:
         model_chunks (List[MegatronModule]): model chunks to create parameter
diff --git a/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py b/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
index 8b374ca4be..3b660deb01 100644
--- a/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
+++ b/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ class TransformerConfig(ModelParallelConfig):
 
     # @jcasper should we keep this option?
     apply_residual_connection_post_layernorm: bool = False
-    """If True, uses the original BERT residule connection ordering."""
+    """If True, uses the original BERT residual connection ordering."""
 
     layernorm_epsilon: float = 1e-5
     """Epsilon value for any LayerNorm operations."""
diff --git a/megatron/training/arguments.py b/megatron/training/arguments.py
index 64c92ea3cd..e79b5d3f2d 100644
--- a/megatron/training/arguments.py
+++ b/megatron/training/arguments.py
@@ -1369,6 +1369,12 @@ def _add_learning_rate_args(parser):
     group.add_argument('--decoupled-min-lr', type=float, default=None,
                        help='Minimum value for learning rate for the input and output layer. The scheduler'
                        'clip values below this threshold')
+    group.add_argument('--scale-lr-layer', type=str, default=None,
+                       help='Scale learning rate for the specified layer.' 
+                       'E.g.  --scale-lr-layer "linear_fc2"  to scale lr for down-proj layer (during pretraining or finetuning).'
+                       'Or,   --scale-lr-layer "head"        to scale lr for lm-head (during pretraining or finetuning).')
+    group.add_argument('--lr-multiplier', type=float, default=1.0,
+                       help='Learning rate multiplier for the specified layer in scale-lr-layer.')
 
     return parser
 
@@ -1821,8 +1827,6 @@ def _add_vision_args(parser):
     group.add_argument('--no-data-sharding', action='store_false',
                        help='Disable data sharding.',
                        dest='data_sharding')
-    group.add_argument('--head-lr-mult', type=float, default=1.0,
-                       help='learning rate multiplier for head during finetuning')
 
     # pretraining type and backbone selection`
     group.add_argument('--vision-pretraining', action='store_true',
diff --git a/megatron/training/training.py b/megatron/training/training.py
index d5ee16be5f..349e99b76f 100644
--- a/megatron/training/training.py
+++ b/megatron/training/training.py
@@ -299,7 +299,10 @@ def pretrain(
     timers('model-and-optimizer-setup', log_level=0).start(barrier=True)
     app_metrics['app_build_optimizer_start_time'] = one_logger_utils.get_timestamp_in_ms()
     model, optimizer, opt_param_scheduler = setup_model_and_optimizer(
-        model_provider, model_type, checkpointing_context=checkpointing_context)
+        model_provider, model_type, 
+        scale_lr_cond=(lambda name, param: args.scale_lr_layer in name) if args.scale_lr_layer else None,
+        lr_mult=args.lr_multiplier,
+        checkpointing_context=checkpointing_context)
 
     timers('model-and-optimizer-setup').stop()
     print_datetime('after model, optimizer, and learning rate '
diff --git a/tasks/vision/finetune_utils.py b/tasks/vision/finetune_utils.py
index ced2e674e6..2f55ebf4a4 100644
--- a/tasks/vision/finetune_utils.py
+++ b/tasks/vision/finetune_utils.py
@@ -224,8 +224,8 @@ def finetune(
         setup_model_and_optimizer(
             model_provider,
             model_type,
-            scale_lr_cond=lambda name, param: ".head." in name,
-            lr_mult=args.head_lr_mult)
+            scale_lr_cond=(lambda name, param: args.scale_lr_layer in name) if args.scale_lr_layer else None,
+            lr_mult=args.lr_multiplier)
     timers("model and optimizer").stop()
 
     # If pretrained checkpoint is provided and we have not trained for