He earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Philosophy (with a minor in Mathematics) from Western Michigan University in 1985. While a student there, he became a contributing columnist for the Western Herald college newspaper. According to Boman, his columns took on a libertarian viewpoint after he read Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, by Ayn Rand. He returned to Western Michigan University where he earned his Master of Arts in Physics, and participated in scholarly atomic physics research. His work was published in Physical Review A. In 1999 he earned an MAT in Secondary Education at Wayne State University.